Controversial West African activist Kemi Seba detained in Paris

The pan-Africanist militant, whose real name is Stellio Gilles Robert Capo Chichi, has been sentenced in France several times for incitement to racial hatred. The reason for the arrest on Monday was not immediately known.

In March, the prefecture of the Essonne department attempted to ban a conference by Seba, who at the time was already the subject of proceedings for deprivation of nationality, a decision suspended by the administrative court.

In the immediate aftermath, Kemi Seba posted a video online in which he burned a document he identified as his French passport, the newspaper L'Essor de la gendarmerie reported Tuesday.

Incitement to racial hatred

Seba is the former leader of the Tribu Ka, a small group that claimed to be anti-Semitic and advocated the separation of blacks and whites before being dissolved by the French government in 2006.

Today, he heads the Urgences panafricanistes group and enjoys a strong presence on social networks.

In recent years, Kemi Seba has organised or taken part in several demonstrations against the Financial Community of Africa (CFA franc), where he has regularly been arrested, expelled or turned back, notably from Senegal, Ivory Coast and Guinea.In France, he was accused last year by Renaissance deputy Thomas Gassilloud, then chairman of the National Assembly's defense commission, of “relaying Russian propaganda” and serving “a foreign power that feeds anti-French sentiment”.

More news to follow.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)