French press review
In the spotlight: the French “Big Brother” “is watching you” in Ndjamena
Audio 05:10
Aerial view of Ndjamena (illustration photo).
© David Baché/RFI
By: Norbert Navarro
4 mins
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The IGN severely implicated by a journalistic investigation in Chad... French public establishment, the National Geographic Institute would have provided the Chadian regime with cartographic tools "
capable of crushing popular uprisings
", affirms the website of news The Media.
To better understand this case, it should first be recalled that the full name of the IGN is the National Institute for Geographic and Forest Information
.
This is the former army mapping service.
Via
its export subsidiary IGN FI, this French public establishment, concluded in 2014 a contract “for civil use” with the Chadian State for the establishment of a meticulous cartography of the capital Ndjamena and its surroundings.
However, Le Media reveals the content of a “
confidential file
” dating from 2013, —therefore before the signing of the contract—and which was written for the attention of the former Chadian president Idriss Déby Itno.
Among the “
medium-term objectives
” of the mapping to come, detailed in the said note, appear in particular “
the detection of sites for sniper
” or the “
prevention of overflow of demonstrations
”.
Being underlined that, generally, the demonstrations having agitated the tranquility of the Chadian capital take source in its districts, the mapping to come thus proposed in 2013 by the IGN FI was to facilitate "
the intervention on a given sector by the security forces
», Says this confidential note.
“
Distance measurements can easily be taken in order to prepare the intervention of the various teams
”, assures IGN FI in this note consulted by Le Media.
Which site also emphasizes that this mapping "
will make it possible to know all the high points of the district and to position snipers in the appropriate places
".
The IGN spyglass pointed at Cameroon
A cartography which would also have "
overflowed
" into Cameroonian territory, very close, affirms the former commercial representative of IGN FI in Chad quoted by
Le Media
.
Hisseine Mahamat Gami, affirms that, during the aerial shots necessary for the mapping, “
the regional director of IGN FI had asked the pilot of the plane to fly over Cameroonian territory and take photos.
He told himself that it might please Deby, who was very interested in Cameroon and who had already sent his army there.
The Cameroonian authorities were absolutely unaware of these shots, which can be very useful in the event of war
,” reports Le Media.
According to this newspaper, the “
flight plan of the IGN FI plane
” seems to confirm that this device “
taken pictures of the Cameroonian town of Kousséri and the bridge over the Logone river allowing to pass from Chad in Cameroon
”.
As Georges Brassens sang, "
Just cross the bridge, it's an adventure right away
..."
Russia in the process of taking over the Donbass
Critical situation in eastern Ukraine, where Russia is advancing inexorably.
The pro-Russian separatist forces claim to have conquered the locality of Lyman, an entry lock to three of the main cities of the Donbass, Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Sievierodoniestsk.
Not easy to match on the ground the trumpeting announcements of the capture of Lyman by the staff of the territorial defense of the “republic” of Donestsk.
The French press, however, notes the fall of this important railway junction in eastern Ukraine.
“
Russian troops seize a key city
,” reports
Le Figaro
.
Which newspaper admits that “
Moscow troops also continue to slowly gain ground
”.
“
Russia is about to seize the Donbass
”, raises
Le Parisien
.
According to this newspaper, “
after weeks of failed assaults and getting bogged down, Russia is slowly but surely eating away at coastal villages (on the Sea of Azov) and large strategic cities
(…)
After three months of invasion, Ukraine sees a whole crescent of its territory escaping it
”, observes
Le Parisien.
Ducasse in crampons at Liverpool-sur-Seine
Football to conclude, with the Champions League final tonight, near Paris… Liverpool - Real Madrid.
And already a first victory for the
Liverpool
Reds , that of the supporters.
This is what
L'Équipe
points out .
“
Montparnasse, Trocadéro, Père Lachaise, Reds fans are everywhere.
The people of Madrid nowhere
”.
In the streets of Paris, the sports daily met “
solidly built red-haired teenagers
(…)
peroxide blonde women with fluorescent green nails, bands of friends: yes, Liverpool has arrived in Paris
”, notes
L'Équipe
.
As Jacques Brel could have sung, “
it smells of beer from Liverpool to Paris
”.
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