Jumma, Sudanese refugee dies of hunger in Tunis

Jumma, a 23 year-old Sudanese refugee has reportedly died of hunger and lack of medical care in Tunis.

Refugees In Libya, an organization that protects the rights of refugees and asylum seekers disclosed that Jumma died about a month ago, October 16, 2023 to be precise.

Before they (refugees) are called illegals, Refugees In Libya asked those saddled with taking care of them to “please reflect and try to project yourselves being and dying under such circumstances like JUMMA and many others unheard of.”

Below is Refugees In Libya’s full account of how Jumma died.

JUMMA IS DEAD
HE DIED OF HUNGER AND LACK OF MEDICAL
CARE IN TUNIS.
HE WAS 23 YEARS OLD.

We met Jumma a month ago, the 16th of october. He was severely malnourished and in pain.

His body was curled up in an unfinished six-story building a few dozen meters from UNHCR headquarters, an armored building with fences and barbed wire.

UNHCR is the U.N. Refugee Agency that «protects and assists people forced to flee war and persecution around the world».

Jumma was a Sudanese refugee who fled one of the most violent and brutal civil wars, one that, however, does not make the news.

When we met him he showed us the prescription from the Mongi-Slim hospital of La Marsa, medicines he couldn’t buy because the money was not enough -the financial aid provided for the first month by UNHCR (120 dinar) was not even enough to feed himself-.

Since president Kais Saied delivered a hate-filled speech on February 21, black African migrants have been systematically exposed to arbitrary arrest or deportation in desert border areas.

In a climate of persecution and violence, it’s impossible to work for a living without risking one’s skin.

In Tunisia, sub-Saharian migrants can only hide.

There are thousands of people, mostly Sudanese, confined in abandoned olive fields around Sfax and Zarzis and in abandoned or unfinished buildings in Tunis.

It’s an open-air prison: these people cannot continue their journey because they have no way to earn the money needed to pay the traffickers; they cannot return because doing so means facing death; they cannot stay in Tunisia because for Tunisians black Africans are the scapegoats for social, economic and democratic decline.

Jumma received his medicine too late, was accommodated in a transit hotel too late, and DIED too soon in said hotel.

«THREE TIMES THE PEOPLE FROM UNHCR PROMISED HIM A DOCTOR’S VISIT BUT THE DOCTOR NEVER SHOWED UP» says Jumma’s cousin, with whom we have been in contact.

«NO ONE WAS ALLOWED TO VISIT HIM,

-he continues- FIND OUT ABOUT HIS HEALTH OR BRING HIM FOOD».

His lifeless body was discovered by the hotel owner, who called the police, who in turn notified the UNHCR to finally notify Jumma’s cousin.

Jumma’s body was finally taken to the hospital just to perform an autopsy. It’s possible that his body is still there, more than two weeks after the young man’s death. His cousin was not allowed to say goodbye, to hold vigil over him, to bury him.

This is what happens daily in Tunisia, a country with which Europe intends to sign agreements to manage migratory flows.

This is the situation in a country that Meloni, Salvini and Piantedosi are desperately trying to save the reputation of DESPITE HAVING BEEN DEEMED AN UNSAFE COUNTRY BY SEVERAL ITALIAN JUDGES.