(Sfax) A Tunisian was killed in clashes with African migrants in the Tunisian city of Sfax where calls for revenge were launched, raising fears on Tuesday of an escalation of violence amid heightened tensions over illegal immigration .
The man, born in 1982, was fatally stabbed during clashes late Monday between residents and migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, said Sfax prosecutor’s spokesman Faouzi Masmoudi.
“Three migrants suspected of involvement in this murder and who would be of Cameroonian nationality, according to preliminary information, have been arrested”, he added.
News of his death spread quickly via a video posted on social media by an MP for Sfax, Tarek Mahdi, showing his body in the street and a trail of blood.
The video sparked a torrent of reactions, often with racist overtones, calling for the expulsion of African migrants from Sfax, Tunisia’s second city.
“We are going to avenge his death”, launched a group of young people during the funeral of the deceased according to a video published by the Syeb Trottoir collective which campaigns against illegal immigration in Sfax.
Calls to stop employing or renting accommodation to irregular migrants have been posted on the page of this local group.
According to images posted on social networks, clashes between migrants and residents broke out on Tuesday in several districts of Sfax.
Senior gendarmerie and national security officials traveled to Sfax where the security presence was reinforced after the murder, according to the Interior Ministry.
Clashes with stone throwing had already pitted African migrants against residents of Sfax on Sunday evening, during which vehicles and homes were damaged.
“Tragic situation”
“Tonight for the 3e night in a row, the streets are transformed into a battlefield, with serious injuries, both Tunisians and sub-Saharan migrants, fires, attacks, robberies and powerless police forces! If the worst was to be feared, then here we are! “, published Monday evening on Facebook Franck Yotedje, director of the association Afrique Intelligence, which works for the defense of the rights of migrants.
Sfax, in central-eastern Tunisia, is the starting point for a large number of illegal crossings to Italy.
In the popular neighborhoods of the city where the migrants live, verbal and physical violence is frequent between the two parties.
This violence increased after a speech on February 21 by President Kais Saied condemning illegal immigration and presenting it as a demographic threat to his country.
During a visit Tuesday to the headquarters of the Interior Ministry in Tunis, Mr. Saied spoke of the situation in Sfax “after the criminal act that occurred there”, according to a press release from the presidency.
Tunisia “does not accept that anyone who does not respect its laws resides on its territory, nor to be a transit country (towards Europe) or a land of resettlement for nationals of certain African countries”, he said. he repeated according to the same source.
Most migrants from sub-Saharan Africa indeed come to Tunisia to then try to reach Europe by sea, landing clandestinely on the Italian coast.
Mr. Saied said on Tuesday that “criminal networks” were behind the illegal immigration and that they aimed to disturb “social peace in Tunisia”.
According to Romdane Ben Amor, head of the Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES), a local NGO that follows migration issues in Tunisia, the current tension in Sfax was “expected”.
The FTDES “warned against the tragic and inhuman situation of migrants aggravated by hate speech against them, which explains this violence”, he told AFP, calling for a speech ” soothing”.