Demonstrators lift placards during an antigovernmental demonstration called for by the powerful trades union federation UGTT in Tunis, on March 4, 2023. (Photo by FETHI BELAID / AFP)
Dakar: More than a dozen activists and a member of parliament were arrested outside the Tunisian embassy in Senegal's capital on Saturday, the prefect of Dakar and a lawyer representing the activists said.
Lawyer Moussa Sarr said 14 people including MP Guy Marius Sagna were arrested and being held at the central police station.
The prefect of Dakar, Mor Talla Tine, confirmed that arrests had been made.
One of the activists also told AFP he and Sagna had been arrested.
Sarr said two journalists had been arrested but were immediately released.
"They were arrested for participating in a banned demonstration", Sarr said. "They had gone to the Tunisian embassy to hand in individual letters of protest."
It follows international outcry over a wave of violence against sub-Saharan Africans in Tunisia triggered by a February 21 tirade by Tunisian President Kais Saied.
In the speech, Saied ordered officials to take "urgent measures" to tackle irregular migration, claiming without evidence that "a criminal plot" was under way "to change Tunisia's demographic makeup".
The activists arrested Saturday belonged to several organisations that had called on their members to bring letters of protest to the embassy after Senegalese authorities banned a rally planned for Saturday.
"We... are writing this letter to protest against the hunt for black Africans in Tunisia following the racist and hateful remarks made by the Tunisian president", said one of the letters an activist shared with AFP.
The governments of Guinea, Ivory Coast and Mali have sent planes to Tunisia to repatriate their nationals.
