France: in Marseille, clashes between Nigerian gangs scare the inhabitants of a district
This weekend in Marseille, clashes between gangs in the Kallisté city forced around thirty frightened inhabitants to leave the district temporarily.
(Illustrative image) AFP - GERARD JULIEN
Text by: RFI Follow
3 mins
In Marseille this weekend of May 1, violence in the Kallisté city forced around thirty frightened inhabitants to leave the district temporarily.
Clashes between several Nigerian groups have degenerated in this neighborhood.
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With our correspondent in Marseille
,
Yoram Melloul
There were at least two injuries in the clashes, including gunshots, and an apartment fire that forced four people to jump from the windows of their homes just above.
All this happened at the bottom of building G of the city, of which 42 of the 129 apartments are squatted.
The inhabitants, themselves, can no longer see their living environment deteriorating.
Burned apartments and cars smashed with machetes and iron bars by Nigerian gangs, at the foot of building G, Wendy, a resident of the Kallisté estate, no longer recognizes her neighborhood: "
Basically, it's a neighborhood that lives, it's a good neighborhood.
We are in our poverty, but we are very supportive of each other, but here, in fact, we are experiencing extreme suffering.
»
Squatters trying to occupy inhabited apartments
In the Kallisté city, the situation deteriorated in 2019 with the destruction of two bars of the city massively occupied by squatters.
They move and then seek to enter other apartments like Wendy's.
“
I was also squatted two years ago by Nigerians.
They closed the door.
I broke down the door.
I entered.
I opened my windows.
I threw all their things out the window because in 48 hours, they had time to install everything.
I argued with them.
They said "my house", they claimed the law said it was theirs.
»
Next to her, Antonio, who has lived in building G since 1974 and can no longer bear the situation: “
To tell you the truth, I am going out armed.
If there is one who allows himself to come in while I am inside, he will come out with his feet first.
Where is the justice ?
".
Antonio is going to move into the building opposite.
Building G is to be demolished as part of a neighborhood redevelopment plan.
The desire for the State to react to this violence
The senator and deputy mayor of Marseille, Samia Ghali, asks for a reaction from the state in the face of this violence: “
Unfortunately, this is not the first time that this has happened.
We are faced with a situation of gangs who come to squat and organize to put people under pressure, to try to take their apartment, their property.
We find ourselves with inhabitants who live with terror, fear in their stomachs, because you are faced with people who are violent, who are armed and who are not afraid of anything.
»
A situation that has been going on for a long time, according to the senator, and which had already taken place last year at the same time: “
There, it is hot, it is daylight earlier, so there are people all the time.
When it's cold, in winter, when you go home, you see less what's going on, but then you start to see things.
There is prostitution, there is trafficking, there is everything.
»
“
It is up to the state to do what is necessary so that these people are not where they are
,” recalls Samia Ghali.
The prefect announced that the police should soon implement operations to evict the squatters.
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