For more than a week, Koné, a young Ivorian, has had no news of his half-sister. All he knows is that 15-year-old Mariam is being held hostage by other migrants in Sfax, Tunisia's second largest city. Mariam is not alone. Since October, there have been worrying reports of a new form of trafficking in the country. Sub-Saharan migrants of various nationalities are being kidnapped and detained in Sfax with the aim of holding their relatives to ransom. Their release can cost several hundred euros.
Le Monde Afrique was able to gather several corroborating testimonies from relatives of the victims, information on their whereabouts and documents showing several money transfers for their release. The authorities are working with lawyers and human rights organizations to put an end to this phenomenon, which is linked to repression suffered by migrants from sub-Saharan Africa in Tunisia.
According to the account of her half-brother, who lives on the outskirts of Sfax, Mariam left Man, on the west coast of Côte d'Ivoire, for Mali before reaching Algeria in November. "It was her boyfriend back home who sent her there," he said. After a week, the young girl managed to cross the Tunisian border and ended up in Kasserine, in the center-west of the country. "There, she called me on someone else's phone. She didn't have hers anymore," Koné continued. "A Tunisian driver offered to take her to Sfax, her destination, for €200, as she was not able to use public transport."
Following Tunisian President Kais Saied's statement in February 2023 that the arrival of sub-Saharan Africans in the country was part of a "criminal plan to change the composition of the demographic landscape," living conditions for migrants in Tunisia rapidly deteriorated. Violence peaked in July, when hundreds of sub-Saharan Africans were expelled from Sfax by the police and left in the desert with no means of subsistence. Since then, the Tunisian authorities have threatened to punish anyone transporting illegal immigrants. Parallel market prices rose immediately.
To pay for Mariam's journey, Koné was able to rely on a transfer from a relative in Europe, paid to the driver. But when she arrived in Sfax, the driver "sold her to Cameroonians and Ivorians," said her half-brother. The kidnappers demanded 1,000 dinars (around €300) to release the teenager. Having arrived in Tunisia less than two months ago, the young man had no source of income. He had never been to the town of Sfax, where Mariam was still believed to be. "I told them I didn't have any money at the moment. Now they've blocked all the numbers I know, and I've had no news for over a week. The family is very worried and calls me every day, but I don't know what to do."
Hamida Chaieb, a lawyer and member of the steering committee of the Tunisian Human Rights League (LTDH), has received several reports of kidnappings since October. "This phenomenon did not exist before," she said, describing the same methods. "These are migrants who come from Algeria or who have been expelled at the border by law enforcement agents. In the border areas, Tunisian conveyors usually take them to Sfax, where they hand them over to sub-Saharan migrants who hold them captive. The amounts vary and can reach up to 2,000 Tunisian dinars."
According to the lawyer, the cases are now being handled in close collaboration with the public prosecutor's office and the Tunis criminal brigade. Several arrests have already been made, despite initial reluctance. "At first, the police did not believe it because there were cases of people who lied to their relatives so that the latter would send them money," said Chaieb.
But the reality became clear as the kidnappings increased. Le Monde counted at least five. "The police were afraid to intervene because some of the individuals were armed. In the cases I handled, they eventually went back but didn't find them – they had already moved on," Chaieb continued. She said that at least two persons who had been freed after paying a ransom were in a position to testify.
Bamba, 37, has been living for several months in El Oued, in the Algerian desert near the border with Tunisia. This Ivorian was contacted by at least three victims of this form of trafficking in Sfax. They had saved his number before leaving El Oued. Bamba was able to help their relatives send them the sums demanded by the kidnappers. Issa, a young Guinean and former fellow traveler, was one of them.
"They left them their phone so that they could contact their relatives," said Bamba, who provided Le Monde with the last known whereabouts of his friend and two other acquaintances, as well as receipts for money transfers in CFA francs, dollars and euros sent by the victims' relatives. According to him, Issa left El Oued for Tunisia on December 12.
Arriving in Sfax by his own means, he followed some "young Ivorians" who allegedly offered to let him spend the night with them. "He tried to contact his correspondent there, who was supposed to help him find accommodation, but it was late, and the person didn't answer the phone," he recounted. The next morning, the "bandits" prevented Issa from leaving and demanded money, arguing that he had to pay "the price of the cab and accommodation" – €350. "For them, it's like a job. They started beating him up and gave him the phone to call his family. I got in touch with his older brother, who paid $300. He didn't want his brother to be tortured."
Bamba has not heard from his friend since. After a long journey through Libya and Algeria, he decided to "calm down a bit" and endure the living conditions of the El Oued desert for a while longer, after witnessing the fate doled out to his companions in Tunisia on their journey to Europe.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.