Tunis — French Deputy Minister for the Francophonie Yamina Benguigui announced, on Monday, the launch of a French language training programme dedicated to the French-speaking community.

This training, which will mobilise some 100,000 teachers, will help fulfill "the common will to establish a language space that entrenches the principles of equity and solidarity," Mrs. Benguigui said after her meeting with Premier Hamadi Jebali.

"Francophonie is, above anything else, a French-speaking space where French is a pillar that will help us forge ahead together," she said, adding that "the French language managed to wipe out all traces of colonialism. Thus, it is no longer merely a language that belongs to France. It turned out into an African one."

The French Minister also reasserted the French government's commitment to support Tunisia in its democratic transition process.