In conjunction with yesterday's summit between the Italian government and several African Heads of State, Refugees in Libya and MEDITERRANEANEA Saving Humans promoted the 'Africa Counter Summit', a counter-summit attended by refugee spokespersons and activists from several African countries.
The examination of the memorandums, military and trade agreements between the European Union and Italy, which support dictatorial and undemocratic regimes in the countries bordering the Mediterranean and sub-Saharan countries, in exchange for "locking up" women, men and children in detention, were the focus of the Counter Summit's day-long event.
"Africa Counter Summit" aims to counter the government narrative on the Mediterranean and Africa, based on the systematic concealment of human rights violations by the regimes in power in these countries, with the direct testimonies of people who were born there and have been forced to flee because of the unsustainable living conditions.
"We cannot talk about development agreements if these agreements do not provide for freedom of movement. The central theme of agreements between Europe and Africa should be respect for human rights, but this is not the case'.
David Yambio, spokesman for the Refugees in Libya movement
Don Mattia Ferrari, chaplain of MEDITERRANEAN Saving Humans, quoted the words of Pope Francis, pronounced during yesterday's angelus. "And now I would like to draw attention to the drama that continues to unfold for migrants in the northern part of Africa. Thousands of them, amid unspeakable suffering, have been trapped and abandoned in desert areas for weeks. I appeal, in particular to the European and African Heads of State and Government, for urgent relief and assistance to these brothers and sisters. May the Mediterranean never again be a theatre of death and inhumanity".
"My comrades in Tunisia are being accused of conspiracy for meeting the Italian ambassador, but the Italian government is rushing to embrace Saied, who has projected his political, economic and social failure onto a scapegoat: sub-Saharan migrants'.
Majdi Karbai, former Tunisian parliamentarian in exile
"Europe's border externalisation policies have common features throughout North Africa. Egypt, as well as other countries, receive clear instructions to control their borders violently, which means the death and disappearance of thousands of migrants in the desert. Political and trade contracts between the EU and countries ruled by dictators bring no benefit to the people'.
Noureldein Khalil, Egyptian activist who left the debate earlier to go and welcome his friend Patrick Zaki to Bologna
In the same vein, he says 'if the Mediterranean is an open-air cemetery, the Sahara is a crime scene. What we witness at the increasingly externalised borders of Europe are images of pure horror, where human lives are worth nothing'.
Moctar Dan Yayé, Niger activist of Alarm Phone Sahara
The proceedings of the Africa Counter Summit took place at the Spin Time Labs auditorium (Rome, Via di S. Croce in Gerusalemme, 55) and can be viewed on the MEDITERRANEANEA Saving Humans Youtube and Twitch channels.
The nationalities represented in the Counter Summit were:
Sudan (Kalid Abaker, Lam Magok)
Egypt (Noureldein Khalil, Ahmed Arafa)
Tunisia (Majdi Karbai)
Gambia (Sullay Jallow)
South Sudan (David Yambio)
Benin (Koffi Michel Fadonougbo)
Burkina Faso (Abu Traore)
Senegal (Ibrahima Lo)
Morocco (Hassane Ammari)
Niger (Moctar Dan Yayé)
Eritrea (Desemble)
Closing the speeches was a video-link with a Sudanese refugee who fled the war and had just arrived in Libya.
