in the largest slum in France, Comorians fear “civil war”

“Yes, I’m scared.” Sitting on a wooden chair, in the stifling heat of his small living room, Saïd Abdul Karim, 28, no longer smiles. Behind him, remnants of mismatched tiling form a colorful mosaic. A woven tablecloth covers the table. The young Comorian without papers has taken care of the decoration of his fragile house. But in a few days, will his “banga”, named after these sheet metal huts, still be planted there, between the banana trees of the heights of Kawéni, in Mayotte? And he, will he still live on the island? Nothing is less sure.

A vast operation to combat illegal immigration “In the long term” To “already started” in the 101st French department, according to the Minister of the Interior, questioned on franceinfo, Friday April 21. His code name? “Wuambushu”, which means “recovery” in Mahorais. More than 500 members of the security forces have been deployed as reinforcements in the Indian Ocean archipelago to carry out mass expulsions to neighboring Comoros and the destruction of a thousand “bangas” in informal settlements.

“We are going to destroy these slums by court order and relocate people”assured Gérald Darmanin – even if, in the past, rehousing solutions have not always been found. This large-scale operation has long been demanded by many elected officials on the island, but worries part of the population and several international organizations. The Comoros also called on France to “to renouncer”.

“Where will my child grow up if I am deported?”

In the muddy maze of the largest slum in France, “Wuambushu” is on everyone’s lips and terror in everyone’s stomach. More than 15,000 people live here, in Kawéni, northeast of Mamoudzou, the prefecture, according to the latest census in 2018. “Where will my child grow up if I am deported?”, worries Said Abdul Karim. Already, last May, the young Comorian was separated from his son after being arrested by border police. Embarked in one of these white vans that we regularly see crossing the island of Grande-Terre at full speed, the father of the family was then placed in the administrative detention center of Petite-Terre, according to his story.

In less than 48 hours, the thin-looking man was returned to the island of Anjouan, in the Comoros, whose shores are located less than 70 km from Mayotte. Like him, more than sixty people are expelled from the department every day, according to Gérald Darmanin, more than anywhere else on French territory. Like him, there are also dozens of them trying to return aboard a “kwassa kwassa”, these Comorian fishing boats which dock every day on the island with migrants on board. And about which Emmanuel Macron had dared to make a joke of questionable taste, six years ago.

Facing the cinderblock walls of a mosque under construction in the village of Kawéni, a forty-something woman is also worried about being dislodged from her “banga” one day, after twenty years on the island. “This operation scares us all here”, says Wassilati Mohamed Atumani. Her six children are all educated in French establishments in the archipelago. They cannot be expelled as long as they are minors, unless they are expelled with both expelled parents, according to French procedure.

“We can only expect the worst”

Many Comorian families in Kawéni also fear that the “Wuambushu” operation will cause violence to explode on the island. “It’s going to be civil war!”spear a high school girl, in a floral dress and a white headscarf. “Even when we sleep, we only think about that.” Surrounded by her girlfriends, the young girl still remembers the stoned school buses by young people from the neighborhood after police operations. “We are passing our baccalaureate this year and we may not even be able to go to school”worries another Comorian sitting next to her.

A feeling confirmed by local associations. “We have to prepare because there will be violence, that’s for sure”slice Zaïnaba Haroussi, director of a training organization, located a few kilometers from the shantytown. “Personally, I have a lot of apprehension. We can only expect the worst”adds Chaima Mohamed, social worker in a neighboring district. The young people she meets constantly ask her questions about the operation, without her being able to answer them. She also recalls the reaction of one of them: “If they’re looking for us, they’ll find us. We’re not going to let this happen.”

“We all participate in the violence”

Young undocumented Comorians from the slums of Mayotte concentrate the reproaches of a large part of the Mahorais. For some, they would be responsible for the “unusual crime” which rages in the archipelago, according to INSEE. Here, about half of the 256,000 inhabitants are minors and foreigners, 95% Comorian. “Making the link between immigration and violence in Mayotte is obvious”, affirms on France 24 the Mahoran deputy Estelle Youssouffa, who calls for the rapid establishment of “Wuambushu”. An opinion that is not shared by all the inhabitants of the archipelago. “We must not always stigmatize the Comorians. We, the Mahorais, we also have our delinquents”shade Sandra Saïd, interpreter at the Mayotte court, in a report by France Culture.

The Comorians of Kawéni also protest against simplistic and xenophobic analyzes of the situation. “Violence affects everyone here, the Mahorais as well as the Comorians”replies Wassilati Mohamed Atumani. “We have the same skin, the same blood, the same face”, adds Djabi Houmadi, 23, touching his cheek. For several centuries, and until 1995, with the introduction of “Balladur visas”, the inhabitants of the Comoros traveled regularly and without borders to the various islands of the archipelago, including Mayotte. “We are all part of today’s violence.” leave him alone young Comorian, standing on the tires that serve as earthworks in the alleys of the slums.

Sitting in front of the door of her sheet metal shack, Nadia Kombo keeps an eye on the young people who are chatting nearby. “If France sends their parents back to the Comoros, they will be without a framework. And it is because of this that some become violent”assures the mother, who obtained a two-year residence permit. “The operation will make things worse. The children will find themselves on the street, without a father or mother”continues Ismail Ahmadi, a father of the district who has lived in Mayotte for twenty-seven years, despite several expulsions to the Comoros.

“We parents must fight with the state, together, against the scourge of violence.”

Ismail Ahmadi, resident of Kawéni (Mayotte)

at franceinfo

The task is immense to pacify these neighborhoods where precariousness also beats all national records. In Mayotte, the median standard of living is seven times lower than at the national level, and more than three quarters of the inhabitants live below the poverty line, five times more than in France, recalls INSEE.

In the sloping paths of the slum, Saïd Abdul Karim affirms that he intends to try to reverse this negative spiral. “I agree to fight against violence, I myself was a victim here when I arrived in 2015”, explains the young father. But this battle will not be won with the police boats and the backhoes of the “Wuambushu” operation, according to him. “I prefer to supervise young people so that they do not become like their eldershe assures, in a calm tone. I want to do everything so that my son can grow up peacefully here.”