Highlights: "Mayotte is French and will remain so," reads the sign in Mamoudzou, on the island of Mayotte. The international community has never officially recognized Mayotte's annexation to France. For nearly 40 years, the territory has embodied the contradiction between two principles of international law. After the attempted secession of the islands of Anjouan and Mohéli, it becomes even more difficult to impose respect for colonial borders if the people of the Comoros themselves question them, says Claire Fages.

"Comorians are at home in Mayotte... This is the argument that the Moroni authorities use to refuse to accept the expelled from this island by the French police. What is the international status...

LIGHTING

Ambiguity remains on Mayotte's international status for the international community

"Mayotte is French and will remain so," reads the sign in Mamoudzou, on the island of Mayotte. April 28, 2023. AFP - PATRICK MEINHARDT

Text by: Claire Fages Follow

2 min

Comorians are at home in Mayotte... This is the argument that the Moroni authorities use to refuse to accept the expelled from this island by the French police. What is the international status of this Indian Ocean territory that has become a French department? The ambiguity remains to this day.

Advertising

The international community has never officially recognized Mayotte's annexation to France. For nearly 40 years, the territory has embodied the contradiction between two principles of international law. That of the right of peoples to self-determination, which the France used to annex Mayotte, whose population had said no to independence. And the principle that decolonization must take place within the framework of the old borders in order not to affect the territorial integrity of a country. It is in the name of this principle that the UN General Assembly has for 18 years reaffirmed the sovereignty of the Comoros over Mayotte. But with less and less vigor.

► Read also: Mayotte: an expulsion operation despite the 2019 agreement between Paris and Moroni on migrants

In 1976, the UN resolution "strongly condemned" the France, calling on it to "withdraw immediately". The 1994 resolution merely invites or urges Paris to respect its commitments. These resolutions have been adopted by a smaller and smaller majority over the years. And they ceased definitively in 1994, recalls the jurist Mita Manouvel in the collective work Mayotte, inventory, issues and perspectives (L'Harmattan).

International condemnations increasingly timid towards Paris

Meanwhile, the fall of the Berlin Wall has reshuffled the cards. Russia and its former communist satellites no longer even vote for this decolonial resolution, any more than the countries of the South or the non-aligned countries, or even the countries of the Organization of African Union, the ancestor of the AU. After the attempted secession of the islands of Anjouan and Mohéli, it becomes even more difficult to impose respect for colonial borders if the people of the Comoros themselves question them.

Little by little, French sovereignty over Mayotte was implicitly imposed. When Jacques Chirac, the first French president to set foot on the island in 2001, said he was "immensely proud to affirm Mayotte's presence in the France," there was no international reaction.

As for the Comorian authorities, if they condemn the departmentalization of Mayotte in 2011 and the status of outermost region attributed by the European Union, they speak more and more of "dialogue" with the France. Moroni signed economic, legal and customs agreements with Paris on Mayotte, effectively recognizing French sovereignty over the island. Even if officially the international community has never decided in this direction.

► Read also: The maritime link between Mayotte and the Comorian island of Anjouan will not resume

Ambiguity remains on Mayotte's international status for the international community

Ambiguity remains on Mayotte's international status for the international community

International condemnations increasingly timid towards Paris

Trends 24h

Latest