CAIRO, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- A 49-year-old man set himself on fire Monday in front of the building housing the Egyptian Parliament in protest of food subsidies, police officials said.
Police in Cairo said a man identified as Abdou Abdel Moneim set himself on fire to protest the government's refusal to give him his share of subsidized bread for a restaurant he owns, reports Egyptian newspaper al-Masry al-Youm.
Security forces were on scene to extinguish the blaze and took the man to a local hospital.
A Mauritanian and at least four Algerians reportedly set themselves on fire Monday.
Algerians were protesting high food prices and unemployment, similar to grievances aired by demonstrators in Tunisia.
The events across Africa were reminiscent of the self-immolation that sparked anti-government protests in Tunisia. Demonstrations in Tunisia gained strength in December after the death of an unemployed man who set himself on fire to protest the lack of jobs in the country.
President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who had been in power in Tunisia for 23 years, fled Friday to Saudi Arabia as violence escalated across the country. Police used water cannons Monday to disperse protesters calling for the Constitutional Democratic Rally, the party of the ousted president, to relinquish its power.
The British Foreign Office urged Britons "to leave Tunisia unless they have a pressing need to remain."
