Christian Kwongang, a Cameroonian student in Tunis, resurfaced on Thursday March 28. On the day of his disappearance, the young man went to a police station in Tunis to renew his residence permit, according to his friends who then lost contact with him.
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With our correspondent in Tunis, Amira Souilem
After ten days have passed no news from him – he disappeared on March 19 – Christian Kwongang’s friends learned that he was released and put in a hotel.
Salsabil Chellali, director of the Human Rights Watch office in Tunis, oscillates between relief and concern: “ Christian’s transfer from the center of Ouardia to a hotel in the capital is a completely unexpected turn of events. Plus the fact that he didn’t have precise information about his situation. There are now fears that if he were to leave the hotel he would be targeted again by security forces, and that he would be arbitrarily detained again. »
Former president of the Association of African Students and Interns in Tunisia, Christian Kwongang had participated in recent months in actions to defend some of his sub-Saharan comrades while Tunisia was shaken by waves of anti-black violence.
During his arrest, police questioned him about his activist activities, according to Salsabil Chellali. “ Christian’s arrest must be placed in a more general context of shrinking civic space in Tunisia with the authorities determined to muzzle all criticism and at the same time the serious abuses inflicted on black African foreigners, migrants and asylum seekers for more than a year », Deplores the human rights activist.
Frequently unable to obtain residence permits in time due to recurring administrative burdens, sub-Saharan students established in Tunisia like Christian Kwongang live, for some, on a daily basis with the threat of expulsion.
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