Cologne police set off a storm of controversy when they tweeted that hundreds of "Nafris" - North Africans - were stopped during New Year's Eve celebrations. Their original report after New Year’s Eve was that most were from North Africa. Police were accused of racially profiling North African men after New Year’s Eve 2015-16 celebrations, during which hundreds of women reported being sexually assaulted or robbed, and most of the suspects came from North Africa. The police force tweeted during this year’s celebrations that they were checking hundreds of “Nafris” - a term short for North Africans which critics saw as derogatory. Cologne police chief Jürgen Mathies conceded that the word Nafri should not have been used for external communications, but police also said that the men stopped had already been seen as likely criminals.

Source: The North Africa Journal January 13, 2017 14:13 UTC