The French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, is in Tunis to officially inform the Tunisian authorities that France intends to expel 21 Tunisians suspected of religious extremism and asks to have consular pass for this purpose.
In this very precise context linked to the last attack on the Basilica in Nice on October 29, perpetrated by a Tunisian, just as the one who committed the attack on the truck on the Promenade des Anglais in July 2016 in Nice, this request may not be the last.
Because as the specialist in Islamist terrorism explains, Mathieu Guidère, the number of “Tunisian jihadists who wander in the wild” amounts to around 500, most of which went to take refuge … in Nice.
In an interview with the newspaper Le Point, the author of “the Atlas of Islamist terrorism”, deciphers the revival of power of Al Qaida, its relations with the Islamic State and the choice of its targets.
Mathieu Guidère explains that the jihadist network remains powerful in the world and its attacks are still increasingly violent, adding that Al Qaida now has more than 70 thousand members, twice as much as Islamic State forces.
He also explains that Tunisians have, mostly, joined the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and that at the fall of Daesh, “1,500 Tunisian fighters returned to the country” and that two thirds were imprisoned. The last third is in nature. And according to him, “it is these 500 individuals who are problematic”.
And to add that “the Tunisian authorities have exerted such security pressure that part fled to Italy by mixing with the migrants of Lampedusa. Since then, as it is difficult for them to integrate within the Italian mafias, they converge towards Nice where there is already an important Tunisian community.
