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Chair of the Africa Diplomatic Corps (ADC) technical committee Yvonne Khamati who alleged that Egypt’s head of delegation to the UNEA-2 conference in Nairobi made the utterances.
– The Egyptian government has reacted to accusations that one of it’s officials referred to Africans in the Sub-Saharan region as “dogs and slaves”
– The official, who was the head of delegation of Egypt to a UN conference in Nairobi, reportedly said this during a disagreement
– The Egypt foreign ministry has said there are no indications that this is true
The government of Egypt has responded to claims that one of its ministers referred to Africans in the Sub-Saharan region as “dogs and slaves”.
Via a statement, the country’s foreign ministry said there was no indication that its official used such language during last week’s United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-2) held at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) headquarters in Nairobi.
“All of the information available to the ministry thus far indicates that no such language was used by the Egyptian representative,” part of the statement posted on the ministry’s Facebook page read.
It added that the foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, had however ordered an “immediate investigation” to determine whether the claims were true.
Shoukry promised that if any government official is found culpable, action would be taken.
The matter threatens to further drive a wedge between Egypt and sub-Saharan countries, that already existed due to disputes over River Nile, and the ministry sought to reaffirm its belonging to Africa.
“We reject any attempts to cast doubt on Egypt’s belonging to Africa and its defense of the continent’s interests. We will send a document to be distributed to all African countries expressing Egypt’s rejection and denunciation of [Ms. Khamati’s] exceeding of her mandate,” it added.
Chair of the Africa Diplomatic Corps (ADC) technical committee Yvonne Khamati alleged that Egypt’s head of delegation to the conference and President of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) referred to Africans from Sub-Saharan Africa as “dogs and slaves” during debate.
She said this in a letter to the Dean of the Africa Diplomatic Corps Amb. Kelebert Nkomani requesting that Egypt be banned from representing the continent in any official capacity until it apologises for its minister’s utterances.
“Divisions evolved when the resolution on Gaza was not adopted due to a lack of quorum because most delegations had left. As a result, a few African delegations consulted with the delegation of Morocco, in their capacity as Chair of the Arab League and Egypt, with the view to dissuade them from nullifying the resolutions that had already been adopted before the issue of quorum was raised.During our consultations with Egypt, the head of the Egyptian delegation and current President of African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) dismissed our concerns by informing that they would speak in their sovereign capacity and to that extent, referred to sub-Saharan Africa as dogs and slaves, in Arabic,” Khamati wrote in the memo.
She said that the accused diplomat spoke to his delegation in Arabic in the presence of African delegates who speak and understand Arabic
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