He and a group of his friends and neighbors spent weeks camped outside Tazarka's biggest employer, a gas and oil processing plant, to pressure its owners into giving more jobs to local people and putting more money into the community.

They had hoped after President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was thrown out in January there would be some relief from poverty and inequality.

But that hasn't happened, and people in Tazarka, 90 km (55 miles) south-east of the capital, are getting angry.

"All we are asking for is our rights," said Ben Salha outside the site, which he and dozens of others brought to a standstill late last month by blocking trucks from leaving with their cargoes of cooking gas.