Has Djerba airport, a tourist haven in southeast Tunisia, recently been the scene of unusual Russian air movements? The question provoked a certain degree of nervousness among observers of regional strategic balances following the publication, on Sunday, May 19, of an article in the Italian daily La Repubblica reporting that "Russian military" aircraft had landed on the island located 130 kilometers from the Libyan border, "in recent days."
While Tunisian authorities remained silent on the subject, Moscow issued a statement on Monday from its embassy in Libya – not in Tunisia – dismissing La Repubblica's reports as "lies" and "falsifications." Tunisia has traditionally been tied to the Western camp – its army has close ties to the United States – and a possible pro-Russian evolution in the country would certainly mark a break, albeit a very theoretical one at this stage. The autocratic drift of President Kais Saied, a regular scorner of Western "diktats," has nonetheless created a "porosity" and "permeability" to the prevailing rhetoric in Moscow, in the words of a European observer in Tunis.
"There have indeed been landings [of Russian aircraft in Djerba], but we don't know their nature," said a Western diplomatic source. According to unconfirmed reports circulating in security analyst circles in Tunis, these were civilian "cargo planes" and "charters," not the military aircraft mentioned by La Repubblica. According to the same sources, some of these aircraft carried Russians affiliated to the former Wagner security company (renamed Africa Corps), who had come to relax on Djerba.
Other aircraft were said to have stopped off to refuel. These comings and goings of Russian aircraft on the Tunisian island have been reported for about a year. According to many analysts, they are not unrelated to the new deployment of Russian influence in the Sahel and Libya, even if the actual military dimension is still absent.
This information, albeit fragmentary and imprecise, on air movements in Djerba testifies to Moscow's discreet involvement in Tunisia. It can also be linked to certain maritime movements, notably those of the Russian cargo ship Mekhanik Makarin – placed under US sanctions since the war in Ukraine – which anchored in the Tunisian port of Sousse at the end of March, on its way back to Murmansk after cruising off Benghazi (eastern Libya). According to maritime tracking sites, the vessel is now on its way back to the Mediterranean, with a scheduled stopover in Sfax around June 8.
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