A first wave of 75 Cameroonians arrived in the country this Thursday, April 6
“Some 181 Cameroonian nationals who have expressed their desire to return home have been registered to date,” said the Minister Delegate to the Minister of External Relations Felix Mbayu, in a statement to Anadolu.
Mbayu said that the Cameroonian Embassy in Tunisia has called, since February 22, Cameroonians residing in Tunisia and wishing to return to the country to join its services for a voluntary return.
The Cameroonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced, Thursday on its website, the arrival, the same day, of a first wave of 75 Cameroonians on board a Royal Air Maroc flight chartered by the Cameroonian authorities and assured that they were immediately taken care of.
Mbayu also indicated that the Ministry of External Relations, jointly with the Cameroonian Embassy in Tunis, has undertaken “urgent and necessary measures” for the consular supervision and the care of all compatriots “in situation of distress” in Tunisia.
Among these measures, there is the establishment of a “crisis unit” at the level of the consular post in Tunis equipped with a toll-free number and the “sustained interventions” with the Tunisian authorities in favor of the protection of Cameroonians in distress situation.
Cameroon is among the last countries in sub-Saharan Africa to have repatriated some of its nationals wishing to leave Tunisia. Guinea Conakry, the first country to launch the process, began its repatriations on March 3.
The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) pointed out in a report published on March 10 that a 2021 study estimates the number of foreigners from African countries outside the Maghreb and found in Tunisia at more than 21,000, in a country with a population of 12 million.
“About 7,200 study in Tunisian institutions, according to the Ministry of Higher Education. UNHCR reported that 9,000 refugees and asylum seekers were registered in the country in January, the majority of them from Côte d’Ivoire, Syria, Cameroon and Sudan, and a smaller number of Guineans, Libyans and other nationalities,” the HRW report said.
