Tunisia’s president hosted Guinea-counterpart Bissau’s on Wednesday (Mar. 8).
The Ecowas chairman’s visit to Tunis coincided with racist attacks on sub-Saharan migrants in the north African country.
President Kaies Saied linked undocumented immigrants to violence and crime during a national security council last month.
From the Carthage palace, he denied racism and vowed to uphold the law.
“There is the Tunisian state, the sovereign Tunisian legality, concerning the status of foreigners, despite the fact that they are our brothers; they may not be Tunisians, but they are our brothers. Any country, in my opinion, would not accept parallel jurisdictions to the state’s jurisdictions.”
Since the President’s initial comments, rights groups have reported an increase in vigilante violence, including stabbings of black Africans, while migrants claim they have been thrown out of their homes en masse and handed over to “mob justice.”
- In Kiev, the president of ECOWAS pledges to “strategic partnership”
- The president of ECOWAS is attacked by the Guinean junta.
Earlier this week, Tunisian authorities announced measures to inquotes “improve conditions of foreigners’ in Tunisia and ease procedures” for those seeking to put things right”.
President Cissoko Emballo gave credence to the thesis of a misinterpretation of Saied speech.
“I wouldn’t believe that you, the president of Tunisia, the country of Bourguiba, could be xenophobic or racist. You yourself are African.
– Kais Saied: I am indeed, and a proud African.”
The African Union issued on Feb. 25 a statement urging all member states to “treat all migrants with dignity wherever they come from” and “refrain from racialized hate speech that could bring people to harm.”
Tunisia’s Foreign ministry rejected the statement, saying it contains “baseless terms & accusations” and was built on “a misunderstanding of positions of the Tunisian authorities.”
