Beninese pan-Africanist and activist Kémi Séba arrested in Paris

Radical pan-Africanist activist Kémi Séba, convicted several times in France for inciting racial hatred, was arrested Monday in Paris, according to a source close to the case. Renowned for his anti-Western positions and his proximity to Moscow, he was stripped of his French nationality in July. The reason for his arrest has not been specified at this stage.

Beninese pan-Africanist and anti-colonialist activist Kémi Séba was arrested on Monday October 15 in Paris, according to a source close to the case. The reason for his arrest was not specified.

Known for his virulent anti-Western positions, the influencer was stripped of French nationality in July. Stellio Gilles Robert Capo Chichi – his real name –, 42 years old, “is declared to have lost French nationality”, stipulated a decree published in the Official Journal.

In March, the prefecture of the Essonne department attempted to ban a conference by this activist, then already subject to a procedure for forfeiture of nationality, a decision suspended by the administrative court. In the process, Kémi Seba published a video online where he burned a document that he designated as his French passport.

Since the beginning of August, he has had a Niger diplomatic passport issued by the junta in his capacity as special advisor to the head of the military regime in power in Niamey, General Abdourahamane Tiani.

Incitement to racial hatred

The former leader of the Tribu Ka, a small group which claimed anti-Semitism and advocated separation between Blacks and Whites before being dissolved by the French government in 2006, was convicted several times in France for inciting racial hatred. He is today at the head of the Pan-Africanist Emergencies group and has a certain aura on social networks.

In recent years, Kémi Seba has organized or participated in several demonstrations hostile to the CFA franc in Africa, where he was regularly arrested, expelled or turned back, notably from Ivory Coast, Senegal and Guinea. In France, he was accused last year by the Renaissance deputy Thomas Gassilloud, then president of the defense committee of the National Assembly, of being a “relay of Russian propaganda” and of serving “a foreign power which fuels anti-French sentiment.

With AFP