Au Malia first flight from Tunis landed in Bamako this weekend with 135 Malians on board, including 25 women and 13 children.
In this first wave of Malians repatriated from Tunisia, there are also 26 students. These have been the subject of physical and verbal aggression by part of the Tunisian population since the message “anti black migration” pronounced by the Tunisian President,Kais Saiedon February 21.
Several Malians continue to register on the lists of repatriation at embassy level from Mali to Tunis to return to their country.
Students attacked
Korotoumi Diakité had decided to continue his higher education in Tunisia. But faced with the climate of insecurity and anti-black racism currently underway in this North African country, she deemed it necessary to return home.
“We had enough problems both with the police and with the populationsays the student. Because we’ve had students who got mugged for nothing. Immigrant or non-immigrant, black is equal to black. Students have been assaulted. There were also several arrests by the police. They weren’t really arrests with a concrete purpose. We get arrested simply because we’re black.”
Farewell Tunisia
Mahamadou Diarisso, in his thirties, had lived in Tunis since 2021. For him, Tunisia was only a stage in his migratory project, the purpose of which was Italy.
“I slept on the street in Tunis for two weeks before our repatriationtestifies Mahamadou Diarisso. It’s raining there right now and it’s very cold. We were chased out of our homes because the landlords (owners of the premises) were afraid that young Tunisians would come and burn everything. That’s how we were all kicked out. The young looters stole our things there, picked up our clothes… We arrived here with a simple backpack containing shoes.”
thinking about prisoners
For this other returnee named Ousmane Sissoko, the urgency is the release and repatriation of Malians in detention in Tunisia: “I urge the Malian authorities to identify, through the Malian embassy in Tunisia, all the Malian migrants who are currently languishing in Tunisian prisons. There are many of them and they are also in cities like Sfax. They want to come to Tunis, in order to return to Mali.”
Sadio Camara, Minister of Defense, ensures for his part that other rotations will take place in the coming days to repatriate Malians wishing to leave Tunisian territory.
The flights will continue
The Minister recalls basic principles: “All Malians and all Malian women are equal. Wherever they are, if necessary, the authorities will intervene to relieve them. These thefts will continue until all our compatriots who are still in Tunisia and who wish to return to the country, return to their country, Mali.”
The 135 Malians repatriated from Tunisia each received from the authorities a nest egg of 75 euros, or 50,000 CFA francs, as transport costs.
Forty of them are still at the Migrants House in Bamako, waiting to join their respective families.