Tunisia, Cambodia, Iran.

Today's three stories you should know.

Mar 03, 2023

Tunisia

Sub-Saharan Africans living in Tunisia say they have been subjected to violent attacks and arrests since President Kais Saied last week said the country was being overrun by “hordes” of migrants in an attempt to change its demographic make-up. The situation is so extreme that several African governments, including those of the Ivory Coast, Mali and Guinea, are organizing repatriation flights to evacuate their citizens. In his remarks, Saied ordered security forces to take “urgent measures” against the estimated 21,000 Africans living in Tunisia. Many lost their homes and jobs overnight.

Cambodia

Cambodian opposition leader Kem Sokha has been sentenced to a mammoth 27 years in prison after being found guilty of treason in a trial dismissed by many as a farce. Sokha was accused of trying to provoke a revolution through his election campaigning and human rights work. Prosecutors also said he had colluded with “a foreign power” in an attempt to topple the government but they did not name any country and offered little evidence. Rights groups and several foreign governments were swift to condemn the sentencing. Human Rights Watch called it a “nonsensical and punitive” verdict.

Iran

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi today blamed a wave of mysterious poisoning attacks on hundreds of schoolgirls on the country’s enemies, without specifying who he was talking about. As mentioned in Proximities earlier this week, about 700 girls have been mildly poisoned across several schools in Iran in what some politicians had originally suggested might be attacks by groups opposed to their education. But Raisi, speaking to a crowd in southern Iran in a speech carried live on TV, said the attacks were a part of a security operation designed “to cause chaos in the country whereby the enemy seeks to instill fear and insecurity among parents and students.”