Reported by three days, the departure of the Al-Soumoud international flotilla will take place on Sunday September 7, 2025 from Tunisia. Hundreds of activists from 44 countries, including Mandla Mandela and Greta Thunberg, participate in this world mobilization to break the Gaza blockade.
Initially scheduled for September 4, the departure was postponed because of the delay in the Spanish flotilla. The Tunisian caravan, made up of around 127 activists, will finally embark Sunday from the north coast of Tunis (Sidi Bou Saïd or Gammarth).
Ships include children’s milk and drugs, intended for the Gaza population.
Participants and support
The mission brings together emblematic figures like Mandla Mandela, grandson of Nelson Mandela, joined Tunisia and will embark with ten other South Africans. He denounced “an apartheid worse than that of South Africa” and called for international sanctions against Israel.
Yassine Gaïdi, member of the Executive Office of the National Union of Tunisian journalists, will represent the national press.
The Swedish activist Greta Thunberg is also one of the participants on board other Mediterranean boats as well as Wael Naouar, member of the International Flotilla Committee.
Mobilization and preparation
The organizers, including the Union of the Flutilla de la Liberté, the Soumoud Caravan and the Nusanta Soumoud Malaysian NGO, salute the donations and supports received.
In Tunisia, a training session was held at the headquarters of the UGTT, to psychologically prepare participants in the risks of the trip: attacks, confusion or arrests at sea by the Israeli army.
Several Tunisian deputies have expressed their intention to join the flotilla, but only one parliamentary participation is confirmed for the moment, according to the deputy Thabet El Abed.
The organizers also launched a solemn call to sailors, captains and mechanics of the Maghreb and the Arab world to put their know-how at the service of this mission.
For more than 18 years, Gaza has lived under a maritime and terrestrial blockade imposed by Israel. Many flutls have already tried to force the passage, mixing humanitarian action and political worn.
Tunisia today becomes a strategic point of mobilization, connecting Barcelona, Genoa and Athens in the same maritime caravan.
