A Kenyan diplomat has accused an Egyptian diplomat of calling sub-Saharan Africans “slaves and dogs” in Arabic, at the end of the United Nations Environment Assembly in Kenya last week.
Yvonne Khamati has demanded an apology from Egypt for the “undiplomatic, irresponsible, uncivilised and insulting behaviour” of the diplomat, the Associated Press news agency reports.
Egypt’s ambassador to Kenya, Mahmoud Ali Talaat Mahmoud, defended the diplomat, telling Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper:
If there was any insulting, it is something we are investigating, but we should not take any decisions or anticipate anything without knowing it because I don’t think he said these things.
Ms Kimathi, in a memo sent to Kenya’s Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed and other officials, did not name the diplomat, but said he was the head of the Egyptian delegation and president of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment.
She accused him of making the remark during discussions on Gaza, when he “dismissed our concerns” and said Egypt “would speak in their sovereign capacity and to that extent, referred to sub-Saharan Africa as dogs and slaves”, Kenyan media has quoted the memo as saying.
