TUNIS — The ramifications of President Kais Saied’s speech to his security advisers last week, in which he expressed his belief that “successive waves of irregular migration” is a plot to transform the demography of Tunisia to that of “only an African country that has no affiliation to Arab and Islamic nations,” has resulted in a wave of violent attacks across the country, including incidents of rape and one confirmed murder in the city of Sfax.

A member of the executive committee of the Association of African Students and Interns in Tunisia (known by its French acronym AESAT) told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “We don’t have full figures, but we get daily reports of violent attacks” against sub-Saharan people in Tunisia.

This past Sunday saw the worst wave of violence to date. “It is difficult to collect all the data, but since Sunday, we know of 70 cases of physical violence” against sub-Saharans, the source said.

Attacks by Tunisian citizens, often in vigilante-style gangs, have been extremely vicious lately, he added. “On Monday night, a student in Bizerte was attacked so violently that they (the aggressors) fractured his skull.”