Migrants are thrown from balconies and hacked with swords in Tunisia, leaving up to 40 including women and children injured, in reprisal attack after a local was stabbed to death
- The attack on African migrants happened in Sfax, Tunisia, on Tuesday evening
- It comes after locals vowed to ‘avenge’ death of man allegedly killed by migrants
Dozens of African migrants have been left injured after being thrown from balconies and attacked with ‘swords’ in Tunisia, a medic has claimed.
Medic Lazhar Neji said between 30 and 40 migrants, including women and children, were injured after the ‘inhumane’ and ‘bloody’ attack in Sfax, Tunisia, on Tuesday.
It comes after residents vowed to ‘avenge’ the death of a 41-year-old Tunisian man at his funeral after he was stabbed to death on Monday during an altercation with three suspected Cameroonian migrants.
During the protests, hundreds of Tunisians gathered in the streets and blockaded streets by burning tyres while demanding the eviction of all illegal migrants, according to AFP.
And video shared on social media showed police chasing dozens of migrants from their homes to the cheers of city residents, before loading them into police cars.
Medic Lazhar Neji said between 30 and 40 migrants, including women and children, were injured after the ‘inhumane’ and ‘bloody’ attack in Sfax, Tunisia, on Tuesday. Pictured: A person holds a knife to four migrants
It comes after residents vowed to ‘avenge’ the death of a 41-year-old Tunisian man at his funeral (pictured) after he was stabbed to death on Monday during an altercation with three suspected Cameroonian migrants
On the Facebook page of non-government group Sayeb Trottoir, the medic Lazhar Neji, working in the emergency room of a hospital, condemned the ‘inhumane, bloody night that makes you tremble’.
He said the hospital had received between 30 and 40 injured migrants, including women and children, and said ‘some were thrown from terraces, others attacked with swords’.
Other footage showed migrants lying on the ground, their hands on their heads, surrounded by residents armed with sticks who waited for police to arrive to hand them over.
Police then detained some migrants and deported them as far away as the Libyan border more than 200 miles according to a local rights group.
Meanwhile, others were taken to the site of the Sfax International Fair, where they were to be transferred elsewhere, according to Romdane Ben Amor, head of the Forum for Economic and Social Rights.
Police then detained some migrants and deported them as far away as the Libyan border more than 200 miles according to a local rights group
Meanwhile, others were taken to the site of the Sfax International Fair, where they were to be transferred elsewhere
Sfax, the North African country’s second-largest city, is a departure point for many migrants hoping to reach EU member Italy by sea, usually the island of Lampedusa about 80 miles away.
Tunisia has seen a rise in racially motivated attacks following President Kais Saied’s comments in February accusing ‘hordes’ of illegal migrants of bringing violence and alleging a ‘criminal plot’ to change the country’s demographic make-up.
With a population of 12million, Tunisia hosts an estimated 21,000 migrants from other parts of Africa, representing just 0.2 per cent of the population.
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