TUNIS, April 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A man from Guinea has died after migrants clashed at a makeshift camp in northern Tunisia, a parliamentarian who visited the site and the National Guard said.
Tarak Mahdi, the MP for Sfax, around 30 kilometres from camps set up in olive groves, said the violence began on Tuesday and that “dozens were wounded” by “machetes and knives”.
Mahdi said the violence erupted between two groups, one from Guinea and the other from the Ivory Coast after a Champions League football match.
National Guard spokesman Houcem Eddine Jebabli said the dead man had been hit in the head by a stone, and that six people have been arrested.
The clashes followed a major security sweep last week to clear olive groves around El Amra, a town south of Tunis, where thousands of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa had set up home a few kilometres from the coast.
Tensions have been rising in Tunisia between residents and migrants.
Tempers flared in 2023 after President Kais Saied said that “hordes of sub-Saharan migrants” threatened to change the north African country’s demographics.
On March 25 Saied called on the International Organization for Migration to accelerate voluntary returns for irregular migrants to their home countries.
Tunisia has in recent years become a key departure point for migrants making the perilous Mediterranean Sea crossing in hopes of reaching Europe. — NNN-AGENCIES
