The young age of Aissaoui, who was born in 1999, is sparking concern in Tunisia about whether a new generation of jihadists is emerging.
A few days after the brutal killing of three individuals at a church in the French Mediterranean city of Nice, the terrorism act is looming large in Tunisian-French relations.
Tunisian President Kais Saied spoke with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron Saturday, said the Tunisian presidency in a statement.
Saied and Macron discussed by phone the terror attacks against France as well as the “question of illegal immigration and the solutions to be found together,” a statement from the Tunisian presidency read.
The Tunisian president deplored “all forms of violence and terrorism” and referred to “numerous people who use Islam to recruit other people with the goal not only of offending Islam, but also destroying relations between peoples,” according to the statement.
Illegal migration nexus
Issues of terrorism and illegal migration are expected to top the agenda of French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin when he visits Tunisia later this week.
According to French media, Darmanin is expected to submit to Tunisia a list of individuals it wants extradited from France. It is not known if the list includes only Tunisian nationals or if also it includes bi-nationals.
“It has become clear that some illegal immigrants intentionally go abroad to carry out terrorist operations. But we must guard against generalisations,” Alaya Allani, a Tunisian extremism expert, told The Arab Weekly.
Tunisian authorities previously revealed that there have been cases of known jihadists and criminal elements arrested while attempting to illegally emigrate.
“It seems most likely that the recent terrorist operations in France will open the door to new legislation in France, and possibly in all of Europe, to expedite the deportation to their countries of origin of suspects and to tighten entry visa requirements,” added Allani.
Nice’s right-wing mayor Christian Estrosi said he wanted to see new migration policies and a change in the constitution in order to “wage war” against what he termed “Islamo-fascism.”
Illegal sea crossings to Europe from Tunisia have been on the rise, largely driven by economic woes since the 2011 uprising that toppled the regime of longtime ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali but failed to deliver on promises of better living conditions.
Brahim Aissaoui is reported to have left Tunisia clandestinely on September 14, making his way to the Italian island of Lampedusa — a major stepping stone for illegal migrants seeking to make a new life in Europe.
Italy’s interior minister, Luciana Lamorgese, told the AP that Italy’s overburdened repatriation centres had no place for him.
“Obviously, we give precedence to people who are signaled by law enforcement or by Tunisian authorities,” Lamorgese said. “The number of spots are not infinite, and he could not therefore be placed inside a repatriation center.”
A friend believed to have hosted Aissaoui in Alcamo in western Sicily for a couple of weeks told police that Aissaoui found work in the area for some days picking olives, then abruptly departed, Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported Saturday. Police also searched the friend’s home, Italian media reports said.
For Tunisian authorities, it is crucial to uncover the circumstances of Aissaoui’s radicalisation that led to his murderous project. Investigators in France and Italy are also trying to determine Aissaoui’s motive, whether he acted alone and if he premeditated Thursday’s attack on the Notre Dame Basilica.
On Saturday, Tunisian Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi instructed his interior and justice ministers to cooperate with French authorities over the Nice attack investigation.
Tunisian authorities said they arrested two people on Friday after a video posted on social networks carried a claim of responsibility for the Nice attack by an unknown group. Jihadist experts said the claim was not credible and that it is unlikely to provide any meaningful leads.
Aissaoui fits the profile of poor young school dropouts doing odd jobs and wavering between religiosity and petty crime. He had occasional run-ins with the police over drug consumption but was not known to the country’s anti-terrorism agencies.
Friends and neighbours said Aissaoui sold gasoline for motorcycles in Sfax and while not starving or homeless, was poor like many in the area.
His brother Wissem does not see his family’s poverty as justifying terrorism. He said that if Aissaoui indeed carried out the attack, he should face justice.
“We are Muslims, we are against terrorism, we are poor. Show me that my brother committed the attack and judge him as a terrorist,” Wissem said. “If he was the attacker, he will take his responsibility.”
“New generation”
The young age of Aissaoui, who was born in 1999, is sparking concern in Tunisia about whether a new generation of jihadists is emerging. Hundreds of Tunisians joined the ranks of ISIS and other extremist groups in Libya, Syria and Iraq after 2011.
Allani sees signs of a new trend largely influenced by online radicalisation. “This new generation of jihadists undergoes a fast brainwashing operation via the Internet. They are, for the most part, victims of social marginalisation in their home countries and are characterised by extremely limited religious knowledge and culture,” he said. “This is an easily-manipulated generation. We have to point out here most terrorist operations after the fall of ISIS depended to the extent of 70% on recruitment using the web.”
There is speculation Aissaoui could have been aided by a network expanding outside Tunisia’s borders. Since he does not speak French and does not know France, the suspect is unlikely to have arranged the logistics of his crime alone. Several possible accomplices have already been identified by the French.
Allani says it is “very possible” that Aissaoui had domestic and foreign support “because the new jihadism does not operate at the local level only. Unlike the Taliban, for example, it is transnational and transcontinental. Today and after the fall of the territorial caliphate, the new jihadists are fighting to establish a virtual caliphate, pending the revival of the territorial one someday. Thus, the activity of the new jihadists will be through the worldwide web par excellence.”
Aissaoui is in critical condition in a French hospital after being wounded by police during his arrest and has not yet been questioned, according to a judicial official.
Five other people were also in custody Sunday after being detained in Nice and the nearby town of Grasse, the official said. They are between 25 and 63 years old and were spotted on video surveillance or detained in homes searched by police as part of the investigation, said the official, who was not authorised to be publicly named according to judicial policy.
“It was reported that a fourth person, a 29-year-old Tunisian, was arrested in connection with the recent Nice attack. This in turn will reveal whether there is a terrorist network operating at the local Tunisian level, or at the European, French, or Euro-Maghreb levels,” said Allani.