France's Mayotte verges on 'insurrection' as court stops slum clearing
A court has halted the clearing of a slum in France's department of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean, blocking efforts by the government to improve security. Police have clashed with local youth, leading security forces to describe a "climate of insurrection".
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France is caught between a rock and a hard place on Mayotte, the only of the four Comoros islands that remains French.
Crime is rampant, with more than 400 police investigations of murder, armed robbery and car theft in the past year, out of a population estimated at 350,000.
Only half the island's residents are French nationals, according to official statistics. The vast majority of the others are illegal arrivals from the neighbouring Republic of Comoros, made up of Grande Comore, Mohéli and Anjouan islands. They chose independence from France in a 1974 referendum.
Without papers and extremely poor, Comorians in Mayotte are forced to live in slums on the outskirts of towns and cities. They are blamed for practically all crime on the island.
An attempt by the police to clear a slum south of the capital, Mamoudzou, and repatriate those without residence permits - called Operation Wuambushu - has now been blocked by the courts.
No cooperation from Comoros
Authorities in the Comores have refused to allow vessels carrying those evicted from Mayotte to dock. This, despite a deal under which France spends millions of euros to develop the three independent islands in exchange for their cooperation in the repatriation of Comorians.
The French state is caught in a deadlock, says right-wing daily newspaper Le Figaro. The social welfare advantages offered by the tiny corner of France off the coast of Africa attract all the misery in the region, asserts the paper.
"If your children are born on Mayotte," the right-wing daily continues. "They automatically become French, with all the benefits that implies."
Left-leaning Libération takes a different view of the situation.
This attempt to bulldoze shacks and expell the people struggling to survive in appalling conditions should never have been attempted, Libé says, blaming Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin for his short-term political motivation.
"Of course it is necessary to fight poverty and misery on the island," continues the Libération article. "But action must also be taken against the armed groups terrorising the people. This will take time, and needs to be organised with humanity and determination. It's no good sending in the bulldozers to add misery to an already miserable situation".
Time to 'kill a few of them'?
"It's a civil war," says one local activist. "And the victims are the French of Mayotte. The only reason the whole thing hasn't already boiled over is because we are non-violent."
Earlier this week, local councillor Salime Mdéré spoke of "these delinquants, these thugs, these terrorists," adding that the time had perhaps arrived "to kill a few of them".
In the wake of expressions of indignation from the island's police chief and from Justice Minister Eric Dupont-Moretti, Mdéré has since apologised for his remarks.
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