African diplomats have called for Egypt to be banned from representing their continent after the head of a delegation from Cairo was accused of describing sub-Saharan Africans as dogs and slaves at a conference in Nairobi.

The comments are said to have been made in the early hours of Saturday as tempers frayed at the end of a week-long meeting about the environment.

The head of Egypt’s delegation was discussing the Gaza Strip with a diplomat from Zimbabwe when he is alleged to have turned to the rest of his team and made the remarks in Arabic.

“He had forgotten that members of Africa’s diplomatic corps speak Arabic, as one of Africa’s languages,” Yvonne Khamati, a member of the African Diplomatic Corps, said.

She called