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Egypt Refutes Allegations Official Called Africans ‘Dogs and Slaves’ at Conference

May 31, 2016
Photo: United Nations Environment Programme

An Egyptian deputy assistant minister has stirred controversy after being accused of calling African ministers “dogs and slaves” at the Friday session of the United Nations Environment Assembly held in Nairobi, Kenya. However, both Egypt’s Foreign Ministry and the Egyptian Ministry of Environment denied the allegations, with the Environment Minister stating that the Egyptian delegation had already left the meeting at the time the incident reportedly happened. In a memo to the Dean of the African Diplomatic Corps (ADC), Kenyan ambassador to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Chair of the ADC Technical Committee Yvonne Khamati alleged that, following “divisions” over a resolution on Gaza at the conference, the head of the Egyptian delegation “referred to Sub-Saharan Africa as dogs and slaves, in Arabic.” The divisions reportedly evolved after the resolution on Gaza failed to pass due to procedural issues, specifically the fact that many delegations had departed at the time of voting and the session therefore did not have the minimum number of delegations needed to vote. In her memo, Khamati went on to emphasize that “the African Union was founded on the premise of the principles of equality…


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