Qatar Charity was forced to apologise to Tunisians and call off a campaign launched in Doha to raise funds and assist Tunisian families. A poster for the campaign, plastered in Doha, showed a middle-aged woman drudging through the snow with ‘Below Zero’ typed above and with the message “QR100 provides warmth for Tunisia”, followed by a number to send the money to.

A picture of the poster was widely circulated in Tunisia, triggering humiliation and generating angry comments and calls to the government to contact Qatar and seek an apology for the campaign.

Using social media, particularly Facebook, Tunisians condemned the poster and the campaign to raise funds, saying that they were totally unjustifiable and amounted to humiliating the country.

Qatar Charity said that they were aware that the campaign was interpreted by Tunisians as “inappropriate and touched the feelings of the Tunisian people” and expressed “its understanding of all the criticisms and observations from the brothers in Tunisia.”

In a statement issued late on Saturday, the Charity rendered an apology, said it gave directives to take down the posters and stressed that the campaign “was never intended to harm Tunisia or its honourable people.”

It added that the poster to assist families in Tunisia was part of a “Below Zero” campaign across countries facing cold weather conditions.

However, Tunisians said that the humiliation could not be eliminated by an apology.

The campaign and the controversy it generated came days after Tunisia’s Prime Minister Yousuf Chahed visited Saudi Arabia and oversaw the signing of deals related to development and agriculture.