Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU / AFP 5:21 p.m., February 6, 2024
While the island has been paralyzed since January 22, at least a thousand demonstrators gathered this Tuesday in Mamoudzou, the capital of Mayotte, to protest "against insecurity and immigration". Scuffles with the police took place in front of the administrative court.
At least a thousand demonstrators gathered Tuesday in Mamoudzou, the capital of Mayotte, to protest "against insecurity and immigration" in a context of blockade of the island for more than two weeks, he said. -we learned from the organizers and local media. “There are between 1,000 and 2,000 of us protesting against insecurity and immigration,” Zaïdou Bamana, a leader of the Forces vives de Mayotte, the movement behind the blockades paralyzing the island, told AFP by telephone. since January 22.
Protesters gassed
According to the Mayotte la 1ère channel, "more than a thousand demonstrators gathered" on the Place de la République, in Mamoudzou, and scuffles with the police took place in front of the administrative court, where some protesters had converged. “Some demonstrators were gassed,” Zaïdou Bamana told AFP. The gendarmerie told AFP that more than 1,000 people were waiting in front of the building when the police were attacked, using tear gas to disengage.
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For more than two weeks, the Forces vives de Mayotte collective has maintained roadblocks in the four corners of the island, completely paralyzing traffic and disrupting the economic life of the poorest department in France to protest against the permanent insecurity. A meeting was planned in the middle of the day in Mayotte between the collectives and the elected officials of the departmental council but the Forces vives de Mayotte said they refused to participate, wondering about "the true intentions of the elected officials".
“Mayotte is experiencing an unbearable security crisis making life impossible (...) Resolving the migration problem and its insecurity counterpart is an essential prerequisite before being able to address any other subject,” they indicated on Facebook.
Broadening of demands
The movement has, moreover, broadened its demands and now demands "the end of exceptional legislative measures, which lead to an unfair difference in treatment in Mayotte, and the end of territorialized stay" preventing holders of a residence permit from Mayotte to leave for mainland France, according to a press release. Another of its demands is the dismantling of a refugee camp from Africa's Great Lakes, which has crystallized tensions around mass immigration which mainly comes from neighboring Comoros.
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On Sunday, the organizers of the blockades called for "intensifying the movement" during a meeting organized in Tsingoni, in the northwest of the island. In 2018, a previous movement to fight insecurity in Mayotte, led by an inter-union and a collective, paralyzed the island for six weeks.