An ambassador from Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs joined tens of thousands in Tunisia Sunday on a march to denounce violent extremism.
The march follows the recent extremist attack on a museum that claimed over twenty lives.
Ambassador Abdel Rahman Salah, Assistant Foreign Minister for Arab Affairs, headed the Egyptian delegation participating in the international march against terrorism in Tunisia. Also in attendance were French President Francois Hollande, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, and several foreign ministers and law-makers from other countries.
A statement from Egypt’s Foreign Ministry read that Ambassador Salah participated in the march on behalf of Egypt “to express the solidarity of Egypt and the Egyptian people with our brothers in Tunisia”. He did so in protest against the “disease” of extremism which destroys “our peoples in the name of religion”.
Waving Tunisian flags and signs reading “together against terrorism”, the march worked through central Tunis, near to the site of the 18 March shootings which took the lives of 21 foreign tourists and a Tunisian policeman.
Demonstrators also held placards reading “Je Suis Bardo”, drawing comparison between the deadly attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in January and the attack on the capital’s National Bardo Museum.
The march took place the same day Tunisia’s Prime Minister Habib Essid reported that the leading suspect of the deadly attack was killed the preceding night during an anti-terrorist operation. Khaled Chaieb, also known as Abou Sakhr Lokman, is believed to be a key member of Al-Qaeda’s North-West African off-shoot, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb (AQIM).
The Egyptian delegation was to express the “sincere condolences of the Egyptian people and government, and to announce our solidarity with them in the war against terrorism”, the message continued. It also reported that President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi had spoken to Tunisian president Beji Caid Essebsi to express Egypt’s condolences on the day of the terror attack.
Ambassador Salah said both countries are cooperating to “combat the scourge of terrorism”, and that the attack, which claimed the lives of predominately foreign tourists, demonstrate “these terrorist are enemies of mankind as a whole”.
