· The African Union, AU, has slapped sanctions on Tunisia for failing to pay its membership dues 2020, depriving it of vote and consultation during the next six months.
· However, the office of President Kais Saied has dismissed the version.
· The president’s office has stated that AU has not issued any such sanctions.
Failing to pay membership dues has cost Tunisia dearly. The African Union, AU, has slapped sanctions on Tunisia for failing to pay its membership dues 2020, depriving it of vote and consultation during the next six months.
Revealing the development, the foreign Minister of Tunisia, Othmane Jarandi said that Tunisia could not pay the dues owing to lack of sufficient funds allocated to his department, around TN287 million (€88 million). The minister added that the foreign ministry was struggling to fund the acquisition of properties for its embassies in Algeria costing TND12 million, the consulate in Toulouse, France, for TND6.5 million.
However, the office of President Kais Saied has dismissed the version of Jarandi. The president’s office has stated that AU has not issued any such sanctions and the country as the founding member has always fulfilled its commitments towards the pan-African organization.
Walid Hajjem, diplomatic advisor to President Saied however admitted to the local media that Tunisia has some accumulated arrears that it is trying to pay to AU.
