Egyptian diplomat said to call Africans ‘slaves and dogs’ over Gaza vote

A Kenyan diplomat has written to the dean of the Africa Diplomatic Corps to protest what she calls “uncivilized, undiplomatic, irresponsible, degrading and insulting behavior” by an Egyptian diplomat who is alleged to have called sub-Saharan Africans “slaves and dogs.”

In a letter dated May 29, Yvonne Khamati, chairwoman of the Africa Diplomatic Corp Technical Committee, said that the head of the Egyptian delegation made the remarks last week at the end of the United Nations Environment Assembly in Kenya.

The remarks were allegedly made in Arabic during consultation on the lack of quorum to pass resolutions affecting Gaza, Khamati said. The conference had been scheduled to end on Friday, but dragged on into the early hours of the next morning and ministers were unable to pass resolutions, including on Gaza, over a lack of quorum.

“Arabic is an African language, and there were many of the diplomats there who therefore understood the comments he made,” said the Kenyan ambassador.

“Those are the comments he made,” she said.

The assembly is the world’s highest-level decision-making body on the environment and makes resolutions to address critical environmental challenges facing the world.

Khamati is asking for an apology and said that Egypt should be stopped from representing Africa in any leadership position.

In response, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri, according to a statement issued in Cairo, has ordered an investigation into the incident. Information already available to the foreign ministry dismisses that such “language” was used by the Egyptian delegate, said the statement.

“It is unacceptable to fall into the trap of generalization and direct flimsy accusations against the state of Egypt, its people and its African identity as well as its ability to assume its responsibilities in championing African interests,” the statement said.

The ministry also directed the Egyptian embassy in Nairobi to send a “sharply worded” memo to the Council of African Ambassadors in the Kenya capital to express Cairo’s indignation at the “excesses” committed by Khamati in her statement on Egypt.

Environment Minister Khaled Fahmy, who should have led Egypt’s delegation, said in a statement late Tuesday he had not gone to Nairobi.

He added that by the time of the closing ceremony, two of his advisers “were already on the return flight”.

Fahmy also said that no Egyptian, government official or private citizen, would say such a thing.

Without naming the perpetrator, Khamati had tweeted that the person who made the remark was a “deputy to the environment minister”.

Egypt under President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, in office since 2014, has worked to forge closer ties with sub-Saharan Africa, with Cairo offering training and technical know-how in several fields.