Operation Wuambushu: resumption of the maritime link between Mayotte and the Comoros

Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credits: Patrick Meinhardt / AFP 19:44 pm, May 17, 2023

The ferry Maria Galanta resumed Wednesday its rotations between the French department of Mayotte and the neighboring Comorian island of Anjouan, suspended since late April, while Paris conducts contested operations against illegal immigration in its Indian Ocean territory. The boat left the port of Dzaoudzi at 12:9 local time (16 GMT) to arrive at the Comorian port of Mutsamudu around 13:70 (<>:<> GMT), AFP journalists found. The two islands are only <> km apart.

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About twenty Comorians in an irregular situation embarked

According to the "collective of citizens of Mayotte" supporting the Wuambushu operation and present at the departure of the ship, about twenty Comorians in an irregular situation embarked. The collective had threatened to block the departure if the Maria Galanta did not embark Comorians in an irregular situation. Contacted by AFP, the prefecture declined to comment on the figure.

The Comorian government had warned Monday that it would only welcome Comorians in an irregular situation willing to return to the country, after several weeks of a standoff with Paris over the issue of the return of undocumented migrants. "I confirm the arrival of voluntary departures," government spokesman Houmed Msaidie told AFP. "There have only been voluntary departures," he insisted.

No crossings since 24 April

According to witnesses, all the passengers left the boat. The undocumented migrants disembarked were taken to another exit, out of sight of journalists, to leave the port. The Maria Galanta had not made a crossing since 24 April, as the Comoros had decreed the closure of the port of Mutsamudu. Moroni said he was unable to accommodate an influx of migrants and called on the France to abandon the "Wuambushu" operation (recapture, in Mahorais), aimed at massively expelling from the slums of Mayotte Comorians in an illegal situation.

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The shipping company SGTM, which operates rotations between the two archipelagos, had suspended the link "until further notice" given the "context". Geographically in the Comorian archipelago, Mayotte became a French department in 2011 but the Union of the Comoros refuses to recognize the sovereignty of the France. Nearly half of Mayotte's estimated 350,000 inhabitants do not have French nationality. Many African migrants regularly perish in shipwrecks trying to reach clandestinely the archipelago plagued by exploding crime.