The words of Tunisian President Kais Saied towards migrants of sub-Saharan origin “have done a lot of harm”, said Monday the Secretary General of La Francophonie Louise Mushikiwabo, saying she was “shocked” by the speech of the Head of State. .
“The words of the Tunisian president revolted many Africans, including myself, who am from sub-Saharan Africa and who has lived and worked in Tunisia”, declared on TV5monde, Ms. Mushikiwabo, who is Rwandan.
Tunisian President Kais Saied denies all anti-black racism
“I had the opportunity to express my dissatisfaction to the president” Saied, said the head of the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF), explaining that she had sent him “a long letter”. Ms. Mushikiwabo co-chaired with Mr. Saied the last Francophonie summit in November 2022 in Djerba, a Tunisian island in the east of the country.
On February 21, Mr. Saied claimed that the presence of “hordes” illegal immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa was a source of “violence and crimes” and came under a “criminal enterprise” aiming to “changing the demographic composition” from the country. Following these remarks, many immigrants were the target of attacks and hundreds of them asked their embassies to be repatriated to their country.
“We are not talking about hordes for humans”, exclaimed Louise Mushikiwabo. “The fact that there is a problem of illegal immigration, it is normal for a Head of State to speak about it, but I found his remarks extremely shocking and I hope that we will try to clean up, but it did a lot of harm”, she added.
Criticized by many NGOs, President Saied claimed that his objective was to enforce the “Tunisian legality concerning foreigners”. In an apparent concern for appeasement, he also declared that the Africans present in Tunisia were “brothers”, and his government announced measures in favor of students and sub-Saharan migrants.