Sinister images are coming out of Tunisia. In Sfax, racial hatred is inflaming minds and bruising bodies. The hunt is on for sub-Saharan migrants – present in large numbers in the port city, where would-be immigrants set sail for Italy. Gangs of young Sfaxians, drunk on vengeance following the death of one of their own in an altercation with Cameroonians on July 3, are tracking down and attacking sub-Saharan Africans who have been evicted from their homes at gunpoint.
Not only has the Tunisian state failed to intervene, but it has also joined in on the movement by deporting hundreds of these migrants to the Libyan border, leaving them destitute in a stony no-man’s-land. It is the second time in six months that Tunisia has seen an outburst of anti-Black violence of this kind. The first was sparked in mid-February by inflammatory statements by Tunisian President Kais Saied. He denounced the “hordes of illegal migrants” who, in his eyes, were taking part in “a criminal plan” aimed at “metamorphosing the demographic composition of Tunisia.”
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