A real "black manhunt". In recent evenings, in several neighborhoods of Sfax, Tunisia's second city, dozens of sub-Saharan migrants have been targeted and sometimes driven out of the city by groups of residents demanding the immediate expulsion of illegal immigrants.

The death of a Tunisian man on Monday during clashes with migrants, three of whom are suspected of the murder, has ignited the powder keg in the port city in the center-east of the country, forcing the government to deploy large police reinforcements. At the same time, videos of punitive expeditions have been widely shared on social networks sparking a real sheet metal.

This explosion of violence, which left dozens injured, comes in a context of strong social tensions in this city, caught between a major migration crisis, major economic difficulties and failing authorities.

"Two miseries that meet"

On Wednesday, after another night of violence, an uneasy calm had returned to Sfax. Fearing for their safety, several hundred sub-Saharan Africans gathered at the train station to flee the city. "They left this morning by public transport or by train to flee the violence," said France 24 special envoy Lilia Blaise. "Others told us they were staying in their homes for fear of being attacked."

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In Sfax, sub-Saharan migrants hunted after death of © Tunisian France24

While the situation has reached a new milestone since Monday, the divide between locals and sub-Saharan migrants is not a new phenomenon. The influx of illegal immigrants is the subject of recurring tensions in certain districts of Sfax, which sometimes turn into drama.

In late May, a 30-year-old Beninese man was fatally stabbed by a group of young Tunisians during an attack on 19 migrants in a home in El Haffara, a working-class neighborhood of the city. A month later, just a few days before the new tragedy, hundreds of people demonstrated in front of the prefecture of the city assimilating the presence of migrants to "a threat to the safety of the inhabitants".

"In Sfax we have two miseries that meet, the misery of a local population at bay and this population of desperate migrants waiting for a departure," laments Franck Yotedje, director of the association Afrique Intelligence, which helps migrants in the city.

"The clashes are mostly taking place in working-class neighborhoods, where the population lives in quite precarious conditions. Many irregular migrants choose these neighbourhoods because they can have housing without a contract," he continues.

"In this difficult socio-economic context, migrants, more and more numerous, are easy scapegoats," he said.

Departure hub for Italy

Over the past year, the number of departures to Europe has literally exploded from this coastal city, home to the country's third largest port.

According to Tunisian authorities, 14,000 migrants were intercepted in the first three months of 2023, a figure five times higher than in 2022.

"Many of these migrants are from sub-Saharan Africa, so West African countries that do not need a visa for Tunisia," Yotedje said. "They arrive by flight with tourist visas, so legally. Others enter irregularly, including by route from Algeria to Tunisia or even from Libya."

When arrested at sea, the candidates for exile were brought back to Sfax. They are then most often released in the city, for lack of solution, fueling the vicious circle of the migration crisis.

This attractiveness for the city is explained by the proximity of the Italian island of Lampedusa, located only 200 km from the city, but also and above all by the rise in recent years of criminal networks of smugglers.

The Tunisian revolution, which culminated in January 2011 in the departure of the President of the Republic of Tunisia, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, provoked a massive wave of Tunisian immigration to Europe, of which Sfax was one of the main starting points. Since then, it has endured, fuelled by the economic crisis in the country, generating income and sparking vocations.

Sub-Saharan networks have arrived, have "learned from Tunisian smugglers and have created their own networks," National Guard spokesman Houssem Eddine Jebali told France 24 in April at <>.

"These sectors have developed, using the resources of this industrial and fishing city, which concentrates a large number of technicians and craftsmen specialized in the maintenance of boats. They organized themselves, in particular to bring back the raw material, such as iron for boats, and to obtain the engines."

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Focus © France 24

Failing state

Faced with this worsening crisis, many observers point to the inaction of the State and more particularly the responsibility of President Kaïs Saïed.

Since coming to power in October 2019, the latter has implemented a hyper-presidential regime through a series of reforms, including the introduction of a new constitution and the dissolution of municipal councils. In January 2023 he dismissed the governor of Sfax, Fakher Fakhfakh, who has still not been replaced.

Hit by the growing economic crisis in the country, the city of Sfax has also been facing, for years, major waste management problems that persist despite the promises of the State, and contribute to this increasingly palpable mistrust vis-à-vis the president.

Finally, in February, Kaïs Saïed gave a shocking speech against illegal immigration, presenting it as a demographic threat to his country. This act had earned him accusations of racism and led to an outbreak of tensions between residents and migrants in several localities. Despite his call for action "at all levels, diplomatic, security, and military," the situation in Sfax continued to deteriorate.

On Wednesday, the local branch of the powerful UGTT trade union centre accused Kaïs Saïed of having aggravated the phenomenon of illegal immigration "by playing the role of gendarme of the Mediterranean, intercepting the boats of illegal sub-Saharan African migrants and transporting them to Sfax".

Franck Yotedje deplores, for his part, the lack of attention paid to the demands of citizens. "We have repeatedly called on the Tunisian authorities to do their job, to protect the population, migrants and Tunisians alike, because the responsibility for security lies with the state."

In addition to the dangers to which migrants are exposed in Sfax, the director of Afrique Intelligence fears that these tensions will result in an upsurge in tragedies at sea.

"In a desperate way, these people are setting sail for Italy in increasingly dangerous conditions. In recent months, we have seen many shipwrecks in the region. What can justify this increase? There is no doubt that unpreparedness due to hasty departures plays a role."

" READ ALSO The Tunisian coast guard implicated in the shipwreck of sub-Saharan migrants

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