Five years after the Arab Spring, Islamic State became greater danger

Countries like Syria and Libya continue to fight the jihadist group responsible for many attacks and hundreds of deaths

It was the desperate act of a traveling merchant Tunisian to start, exactly five years ago, the uprising of young people, giving rise to a series of demonstrations throughout Tunisia, which would result in the "Arab Spring".


It was December 17, 2010 when Mohamed Bouazizi set fire to himself in the town of Sidi Bouzid, in the central part of Tunisia, to protest the economic conditions of your country and police abuses. An act which became the spark for the riots that would lead to the fall of Zine regimen El Abidine Ben Ali and his flight, ushering in an uncertain transitional phase, with the fear of a fundamentalist turn to the election of the first president of post-dictatorship and the nightmare of terrorism.

But the sacrifice of Bouazizi was not an isolated act: has become a symbol to emulate in many countries in the region. The scent of the Jasmine Revolution invaded Egypt, overthrew Hosni Mubarak and gave rise to the myth of Tahrir Square. The Arab Spring echoes also reached Libya, with the first popular riots suppressed by Muammar Gaddafi. Then came the international military intervention and the tragic end of Colonel.

But the hope of a democratic revival broke. The country was taken over by militias and plunged into chaos and anarchy, a situation that begins to solve just this December 17, with the historic peace agreement signed in Rome. But the Libyans have yet to deal with the jihadist group Islamic State, increasingly present.

And we can not forget Syria, itself shaken by the winds of the first riots, but with a strong regime enough to not give in. The country faces a civil war today, with thousands of dead and millions of refugees, many of them driven by the persecutions of the extremist group, but also the forces of Bashar al Assad, other rebel groups and even of coalition attacks led by the United States .

Riots also come to Yemen, already grappling with Al Qaeda cells, and threw the country into a conflict that follows in progress.

Spring smaller impacts were also registered in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Sudan, Morocco, Mauritania and Kuwait. The international community was taken by surprise by uprisings in the Middle East, which, after years of impasse and immobility, live your greatest time of change since the end of colonialism.
Instability has increased tension in Israel who, after losing a historic ally like Mubarak, look carefully at the situation in Jordan. But five years after the immolation of Bouazizi, what has really changed?

The great dictators of North Africa, considered impregnable pillars of an order applied with an iron fist and allied to the West, no longer dictate the laws.

Ben Ali lives in exile, Mubarak faces a long legal and physical agony, while those who resist is the Algerian Abdelaziz Bouteflika, survivor of the revolutionary wave. Upheavals, revolutions and repressions that between 2011 and 2012, not yet indicated what would become the greatest danger the Middle East - and perhaps the world - today: the Islamic State.