The Heat: Arab Spring Legacy

The Heat

Anand Naidoo

Anand Naidoo

Published January 24, 2018 at 2:15 PM
Updated January 25, 2018 at 2:43 PM

Seven years after the Arab Spring, what is its legacy and what are the challenges for those countries that were involved?

It’s been seven years now since a wave of discontent swept across North Africa and the Middle East, setting off a series of uprisings that became known as the Arab Spring. 

And when protests erupted in Tunisia recently, many were reminded that this was the country where the Arab Spring started in late 2010.

All across the region, countries were engulfed in major demonstrations and, in some, the fallout was significant.

Back in 2011, thousands jammed into Cairo’s Tahrir Square in a show of force that led to the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Protests in Syria targeted the leadership of President Bashar al-Assad.  That set the fuse burning for a war that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths.

In Libya, its long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi was targeted and killed after an uprising there. The country later dissolved into chaos.

War has also ravaged Yemen, another Arab Spring country.

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