The 40-year-old lawyer, Mohamed Farouk Hassan, shouted slogans
against rising prices before setting himself alight, one source said. The
severity of his injuries was not clear.
On Monday, an Egyptian, aged about 50, poured gasoline over himself
and lit it after protesting against poor living conditions. His injuries were
described as light.
A hospital source said the hospital had been informed of the imminent
arrival of a victim of burns, but did not have details.
Similar cases were reported in Algeria and Mauritania.
Like Tunisians, whose public protests led to the ousting of President
Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali, Arabs in many states are frustrated by soaring prices,
poverty, high unemployment and authoritarian systems of rule that give them no
voice.
Political activists throughout the Arab world say they have been
inspired by the example of Tunisia, the first country in decades where an Arab
leader was toppled by public protests.
The protests in Tunisia erupted after the suicide of 26-year-old
vegetable trader Mohamed Bouazizi, who set himself on fire on Dec. 17 because
police seized his grocery cart.
Bouazizi died weeks later of his burns, becoming a martyr to crowds
of students and the unemployed protesting against poor living conditions. Ben
Ali had visited him in hospital, a gesture that failed to win him public
sympathy.
There have been other self-immolation cases across the region,
apparently inspired by Tunisia’s Bouazizi.
In Algeria, where riots over the last few weeks have broken out in
parallel to the unrest in Tunisia, newspapers gave their first reports on
Sunday and Monday of at least four men who set themselves on fire in provincial
towns in the last five days.
In Mauritania’s capital Nouakchott, police sources said Yacoub Ould
Dahoud, 40, a company director and member of a wealthy family, staged a
self-immolation protest on Monday against alleged government mistreatment of
his tribe.
In Egypt, there have been two other cases reported of self-immolations
or attempts in the past two days. One was stopped before the man set himself
alight and the second seemed to have no political motive.
A newspaper said a mechanic in Ismailiya, east of Cairo, made an
attempt but was stopped setting himself alight. Security sources said a psychologically
disturbed 25-year-old set himself alight in Alexandria after an argument with
his parents.
