Latest Developments in Arab Political Unrest, from North Africa to the Persian Gulf
A country-by-country guide to the uprisings of 2011, and where each ended up.
In 2011 a wave of protest swept the Arab world, from Morocco to Bahrain. At its height, news organisations published daily round-ups of developments across more than a dozen countries. Here is where the main uprisings began, and how they ended.
Tunisia
Protests began in December 2010 after the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi. President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia on 14 January 2011. Tunisia became the uprisings' only lasting democratic transition. That transition was reversed after President Kais Saied suspended parliament in 2021 and concentrated power.
Egypt
Eighteen days of protests centred on Cairo's Tahrir Square forced Hosni Mubarak to resign on 11 February 2011. The Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi won the 2012 presidential election, then was overthrown by the military in July 2013. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has ruled since.
Libya
An uprising in Benghazi in February 2011 became a civil war. NATO intervened under a UN mandate, and Muammar Gadhafi was killed in October 2011. Libya then fragmented among rival governments and militias.
Yemen
Mass protests and splits in the elite led Ali Abdullah Saleh to hand over power in a Gulf-brokered deal in late 2011. The transition collapsed into the Houthi takeover of Sanaa in 2014 and a Saudi-led war from 2015.
Syria
Protests from March 2011 met violent repression and turned into a civil war that killed hundreds of thousands and displaced half the population. Bashar al-Assad survived with Russian and Iranian support until his regime collapsed in December 2024.
Bahrain
Protests at the Pearl Roundabout were crushed in March 2011 with the help of Saudi and Emirati forces.
Elsewhere
Morocco, Jordan and Oman saw protests met with constitutional or cabinet changes. Algeria and the Gulf states largely avoided mass unrest, partly through increased public spending.
The balance sheet
Fifteen years on, the uprisings' results are sobering: one short-lived democracy, several restored autocracies and three devastating wars. The grievances that drove them, including unemployment, corruption and repression, have not gone away.