At Simone Gbagbo high school in Yopougon, a large working-class neighborhood in Abidjan, teachers are in shock after the announcement of the death of Laurent Barthélémy Ani Guibahi. The 14-year-old boy was found dead Wednesday, January 8, in the landing gear of an airplane connecting Abidjan to Paris.
Like thousands of Ivorians who attempt illegal immigration every year, Laurent Barthélémy wanted to reach Europe without warning his parents. Blinded by this dream of El Dorado, he died at the age of 14, not imagining that the cold and the altitude would kill him for sure.
"I am distraught. I feel lost. The shock is brutal. We were thinking of running away ... It's terrible to bear!" Says Antoine Mel Gnangne, educator, who regularly supervised the young boy.
At Simone Gbagbo high school in Yopougon, 7,000 students crowd crowded rooms. 115 students per class. Three or four children per bench provided for two ... The school also practices "double vacation": half of the students come in the morning, the other in the afternoon. Laurent Barthelemy was in 4th in the morning. The last to see him were with him on Sunday, according to a supervisor who spoke to his "neighborhood comrades".
Laurent Barthelemy disappeared on Monday. That day, "the child took his things. He was supposed to come to class. It was only in the evening that the parents noticed the absence of the student," recalls Liliane NGoran, the censor of the High school.
"On Tuesday morning they came to school because he did not sleep at home. We saw with them that he was not in class and that is how they did it. disappearance notices that we posted everywhere in and around the establishment, "she said.
"We made the connection"
The poster shows a frail and thoughtful young man in traditional dress. Good in math and physics but very weak in the humanities and French, Laurent Barthélémy "was not a problem child. He is not bad. There is no complaint from a professor or another I do not blame him for anything disciplinary, "said Antoine Mel.
After having crossed the whole city - the airport is about thirty kilometers from his district -, the young man "reached the landing gear of the aircraft by grabbing it when it Ci was preparing to take off for its takeoff around 22 h 55 "Tuesday evening, according to the press release from the Ministry of Transport.
Minister Amadou Koné clarified that "on the (surveillance) video we see an individual dressed in a T-shirt (...) We think he had access to the airport space by climbing the wall. Then , he hid in the green spaces and grabbed onto the landing gear of the plane at the time of the flight. "
"On Thursday, the airport gendarmerie came with a bag (found near the tarmac) where there was a child's belongings. They asked us if we recognized the t-shirt. It was the knit EPS which carried the effigy of the establishment ... It is the t-shirt of the pupils of 4th. We made the connection ", explains Liliane NGoran who had confirmation of the identity Friday afternoon.
Among the 25 million Ivorians, thousands try to immigrate illegally every year. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in number of clandestine migrants, Côte d'Ivoire is in 3rd position among the countries of West Africa.
With AFP
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