Two Nigerian migrants stranded in the desert of Tunisia have narrated their ugly experience in the hands of the soldiers of the North African country.

While being interviewed by the media team of the Tunisian ministry of interior, one of the Nigerians explained that the soldiers flogged him with iron bars, InfoMigrants reported.

It wasn’t stated why he was physically assaulted. However, the two men were among about 200 illegal migrants apprehended by Tunisian law enforcement officers and transported to the Tunisia-Libya desert where they sheltered in the open without water and food.

A racially motivated statement credited to Tunisian President Kais Saied in February has been identified to be fueling a wave of attacks against black migrants in the country.

Saied had told leaders of the country during a security council meeting on February 21 that the increasing rate of migration by Africans into the country was a plot to strip the country of its affiliation to the Arab world and render it purely an African nation.

“Migration is a plot to change Tunisian dynamics. Traitors who are working for foreign countries and shady parties are targeting the Tunisian nation state. We helped them during the Covid-19 distribution of medicine and we are proud of our African identity but today, they want to change the demographic composition of Tunisia,” the president reportedly said.

He went on: “The undeclared goal of the successive waves of illegal immigration is to consider Tunisia a purely African country that has no affiliation to the Arab and Islamic nations.”

The incendiary remarks have elicited some blowbacks against the president by regional and international organisations. The African Union described the comments as radicalised hate speech.

Amnesty International argued that the statement had incited uncontrolled mob attacks on documented and undocumented migrants in the country.

Against the backdrop of the statement, the World Bank has also expressed its rage against the president’s utterances and announced a suspension of its activities in the country.

“The safety and inclusion of migrants and minorities is part of our institution’s core values of inclusion, respect, and anti-racism in all shapes and forms,” David Malpass, World Bank president, wrote, according to Reuters.