2011 Algerian self-immolations and about 100 youths protested his death causing the provincial governor to sack the mayor. However, hospital staff the following day claimed he was still alive, though in critical condition. Al Jazeera described the suicide as "echoing the self-immolation that triggered the protests that toppled the leader of neighbouring Tunisia." He finally died on 24 January at a hospital in Annaba. These suicides were followed by dozens more attempted or successful self-immolations across the country, so far without triggering nationwide demonstrations, most of them after the Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled his country on 14 January; cases
Benjamin Bounkoulou line with the African Union's standards", and he called for the results to be respected. Shortly before the July 2009 presidential election, Bounkoulou stressed the importance of having a peaceful election and urged the people to behave in a responsible and civic manner so that the election would be an example to Africa and the world. He headed the African Union's observer mission for the October 2009 Tunisian election and expressed approval of the election, saying that voters were not pressured to vote for President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Seeking another term in the Senate in the October 2011