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African Foreign Students In Tunisia Fearful After Racist Violence

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Thousands of sub-Saharan African students in Tunisia are still fearful after a surge of racist attacks following comments by President Kais Saied against illegal immigration, and are seeking concrete steps to protect them.

The violence erupted after Saied blamed “hordes of illegal migrants from sub-Saharan Africa” for most crime in Tunisia and alleged there was a “criminal plot” to change the nation’s demographic make-up.

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At the height of the wave of attacks last month, the “feeling of fear was overwhelming,” said Christian Kwongang, president of AESAT, an association representing sub-Saharan African students in Tunisia.

Amid what witnesses described as a “hunt for blacks”, Kwongang recalled that “we had parents in tears who called us, worried about their children being arrested, with some detained for up to two weeks”.

Kwongang said his group documented more than 20 assaults against students, “including 10 with knives”, and over 400 arrests. For more than two weeks it advised students to stop attending classes and only venture outside in case of emergency.

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At least 100 students made emergency repatriations, mostly to Mali, Ivory Coast, Guinea and Niger, said Kwongang, who comes from Cameroon.

READ ALSO: Group Condemns Tunisian Xenophobic, Racial Attacks On African Migrants

“They left because of the wave of racism, arbitrary arrests and numerous cases of evictions” from housing, Kwongang said.

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The violence has abated and students returned to classes on March 6. No physical attacks have been recorded since March 7, but “verbal attacks” persist and the foreign students remain on guard, said Kwongang.

“We are in the observation phase,” he said. “And we are waiting to see concrete things — for example, an acceleration in the granting of residence permits.”

– ‘Disaster for Tunisia’ –
The violence was a “disaster for Tunisia”, which had always been “a welcoming place”, said Tahar Ben Lakhdar, director of the private ESPRIT university.

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Saied’s comments represent “an enormous smear”, said the 83-year-old, who stressed that they were also entirely unjustified because “which country does not have foreigners in irregular situations?”

Some educational institutions have since implemented new protective measures — including setting up crisis units, bus transport, and having local students accompany sub-Saharan African students.

READ ALSO: Japanese Billionaire Masatoshi Ito Is Dead

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Lakhdar said ESPRIT, which specialises in engineering and management courses, has 350 sub-Saharan Africans among its 14,000 students.

He said the university had established “a platform where each student who has a problem can report to dedicated lawyers”.

The government of the North African country has also promised to address the problem.

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Malek Kochlef, the Ministry of Higher Education’s director of international coordination, said that “there were some very reprehensible attacks” but claimed that “they were isolated acts”.

He told AFP the ministry had responded by establishing communication units and contact points in each educational establishment to report any incidents.

Authorities have also moved to begin streamlining the granting of residency permits and promised the creation an agency for the reception of foreign students, Kochlef added.

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– Long ‘an El Dorado’ –

The violence could harm the private education sector in Tunisia, a small Mediterranean country suffering economic crisis, and deep political divisions since Saied in 2021 dismissed the government and assumed wide-ranging powers.

Sub-Saharan African students make up the “overwhelming majority” of international students in the private education sector and a “significant proportion” at public institutions, Kochlef said.

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International student numbers in Tunisia, mostly from other African countries, grew to 9,000 last year, a five-fold increase since 2011.

Kwongang said there were 8,200 sub-Saharan African students at Tunisia’s universities and technical colleges at last count, in 2021.

Ivorian student Paul Andre Moa said Tunisia had long been seen as an “El Dorado, a welcoming land with an excellent education system”.

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READ ALSO: Five Migrants Drown In Shipwreck Off Tunisia

It has attracted foreign students with favourable annual tuition fees starting at 3,000 euros (about $3,200), a much lower cost of living and less strict visa requirements than in Europe.

But Kwongang said that, after the announcement of measures to reassure students, AESAT members were now waiting to see what practical effect they will have.

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He said students still faced close scrutiny from authorities and from police who are “one day asking for one document, the next day for another”.

Kwongang voiced “great concern” that enrolments will fall as many foreign students now hope to continue their studies “elsewhere, in Europe or Canada” and said he saw Tunisia’s reputation as “severely damaged”.
AFP

 

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VIDEO: Two Nigerians Arrested In Libya For Alleged Robbery

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Police in Tripoli, Libya, have arrested two Nigerians for allegedly carrying out a series of robberies in the city.

The suspects, both undocumented migrants, were arrested on August 25 after they were captured on CCTV robbing a convenience store.

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Migrant Rescue Watch, an organisation that monitors migrant activities, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday.

READ ALSO:Four Nigerians Arrested In Libya As Police Raid House Allegedly Used For Prostitution

According to the group, the suspects had allegedly been responsible for multiple break-ins and robberies targeting commercial stores with the intent of seizing cash.

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The statement said, “Police in Tripoli arrested 2 undocumented #migrants of Nigerian nationality responsible for series of break and entries and robberies. The accused were targeting commercial stores with the intent of seizing cash. The case was referred to public prosecutor.”

Watch video below:

https://twitter.com/i/status/1961001698136072343https://twitter.com/i/status/1961001698136072343

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NGO Says Starving Gaza Children Too Weak To Cry

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The head of Save the Children described in horrific detail on Wednesday the slow agony of starving children in Gaza, saying they are so weak they do not even cry.

Addressing a Security Council meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the president of the international charity, Inger Ashing, said famine — declared by the UN last week to be happening in Gaza — is not just a dry technical term.

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When there is not enough food, children become acutely malnourished, and then they die slowly and painfully. This, in simple terms, is what famine is,” said Ashing.

READ ALSO:Israeli Strike Kills Al Jazeera Journalist In Gaza

She went on to describe what happens when children die of hunger over the course of several weeks, as the body first consumes its own fat to survive, and when that is gone, literally consumes itself as it eats muscles and vital organs.

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Yet our clinics are almost silent. Now, children do not have the strength to speak or even cry out in agony. They lie there, emaciated, quite literally wasting away,” said Ashing.

She insisted that aid groups have been warning loudly that famine was coming as Israel prevented food and other essentials from entering Gaza over the course of two years of war triggered by the Hamas attack of October 2023.

READ ALSO:42 Killed In Israeli Attacks, Says Gaza’s Civil Defense

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Everyone in this room has a legal and moral responsibility to act to stop this atrocity,” said Ashing.

The United Nations officially declared famine in Gaza on Friday, blaming what it called the systematic obstruction of aid by Israel during more than 22 months of war.

A UN-backed hunger monitor called the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative said famine was affecting 500,000 people in the Gaza governorate, which covers about a fifth of the Palestinian territory, including Gaza City.

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The IPC projected that the famine would expand by the end of September to cover around two-thirds of Gaza.
AFP

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Again, Russia Claims Another Village In Ukraine’s Region

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The Russian army Monday claimed to have captured another village in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, moving deeper into Ukrainian territory as peace efforts stall.

Russian forces are slowly but steadily gaining ground in costly battles for largely devastated areas in eastern and central Ukraine, normally with few inhabitants or intact buildings left.

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Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had seized the settlement of Zaporizke in the region, which Russian troops recently advanced into for the first time in the three-and-a-half-year offensive.

READ ALSO:Russia, Ukraine Exchange Prisoners Of War, Civilians

Kyiv denies that Russian troops have gained a foothold in the Dnipropetrovsk region, an important industrial hub.

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After another push by US President Donald Trump to broker a Ukraine-Russia summit, hopes for peace dimmed when Russia last week ruled out any immediate meeting between presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky.

The central region of Dnipropetrovsk has previously been largely spared from fighting that has ravaged swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine, until Russia said its forces broke through in July.

READ ALSO:Russian Politicians Mock European Leaders After White House, Ukraine Talks

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Dnipropetrovsk is not one of the five Ukrainian regions — Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Crimea — that Moscow has publicly claimed as Russian territory.

Ukraine said Russia had launched over 100 drones Monday, killing a 37-year old civilian driver and wounding two people in the northeastern Sumy region.

Moscow said Kyiv had launched about two dozen drones targeting western Russia

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