Tunisia: Fear for Cameroonians as xenophobic attack erupts.

In the statement, the President said immigration was a plot by the West, aimed at changing his country’s demographic composition. The Tunisian leader then ordered the expulsion of undocumented migrants. Fears are now rife that Cameroonians in Tunisia might also come under the attacks.

Reports hold that there has been escalating racist attacks against migrants and refugees of Sub-Saharan Africa, following the outing of the Tunisian President.

The spokesman of Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, Romdhane Ben Amor, had revealed that “the attacks consisted of attempts to expel migrants from their homes, ban them from using public transportation, and physical, racist attacks”.

Gov’t pressured to protect citizens

Following these developments, the president of opposition Cameroon Renaissance Movement, CRM party, Prof Maurice Kamto, has expressed concern for Cameroonians trapped in the xenophobic attacks in Tunisia.

He has called on the government to act urgently to save the lives of compatriots, some of whom, have allegedly lost their lives under unknown circumstances.

“I therefore calls on the government to act urgently to save the lives of those of our compatriots still on Tunisian soil,” Kamto said, adding that government should ask Tunisia, in the required diplomatic manner, to shed light on the persistent allegations relating to the deaths of compatriots on their soil.

“The MRC stresses that the government of Cameroon has an obligation to ensure the protection of the lives of Cameroonians within and outside our borders,” Kamto emphasised.

The MRC leader reiterated that the recent happenings are a serious reminder of the ill-treatment of Sub-Saharan Africans, accompanied by “clearly racist, deeply shocking and totally unacceptable remarks by the highest authority of the Tunisian State, a country which is part of the family of African nations united within the African Union”.

While expressing sympathy to the family of compatriots who lost their lives, the MRC president requested government to make an official statement on these painful events.

Besides Kamto, the President of the Popular Movement for Dialogue and Reconciliation, MPDR, Jean-Claude Shanda Fonme, has added his voice in calling for government to act for its compatriots in distress.

In an open letter addressed to the Minister of External Relations, February 27, the MPDR leader, who also doubles as President of the Independent Commission against Corruption and Discrimination, said urgent measures should be initiated to save the millions of Cameroonians living in that country.

“I speak for millions of other citizens, about the urgent measures initiated by the Department to assist our compatriots suffering in the Republic of Tunisia,” Shanda said.

“Cameroon should immediately take the initiative to convene an emergency meeting of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union, and later propose the inclusion of the examination of this serious incident in the agenda of the next annual ordinary session of the organisation,” he added.

He also demanded that the Tunisian Ambassador to Cameroon be summoned to make clarification on the shocking and derogatory remarks made by the President of his country.

It is worth noting that the Cameroonian Embassy in Tunisia had issued a communique, February 22, calling for persons of Cameroonian origin to be calm and respect the laws of the land they are in amidst the tensions.

Ambassador Djobo Samuel had also called on compatriots wishing to return home to approach the Embassy in Tunis, capital of Tunisia.