This operation, which could begin on April 20, the date of the end of Ramadan, has never been confirmed by Paris since its revelation by “Le Canard enchaîné” in February.
This is the first time they have taken a stand. The Comoros asked France, on Monday April 10, to “to renouncer” to an operation “slum destruction” in Mayotte and“expulsion of all their undocumented occupants” to the Comorian island of Anjouan. Such a project “goes against respect for human rights and risks undermining good relations” between the two countries, according to a press release from the Comorian presidency.
The operation, revealed by The chained Duck, but never made official by Paris, would be baptized Wuambushu (“recovery”, in Mahorais). It was designed by the Minister of the Interior and Overseas, Gérald Darmanin, then validated in February by Emmanuel Macron, according to a source familiar with the matter quoted by AFP, confirming information from the satirical newspaper. The operation should last two months, with a “big phase from April 20 to 30” at its launch, at the end of Ramadan. A CRS company specializing in urban violence must be sent to Mayotte, a first overseas for more than 20 years, according to Mayotte La 1ère.
Comorian organizations fear a “massacre”
Despite numerous calls from civil society and Comorian political parties, President Azali Assoumani had so far not spoken on the issue. On April 5, Comorian civil society organizations held a press conference to warn of a “slaughter to come”. “We intend to seize international organizations to inform them of the massacre that France wants to perpetrate on the Comorian island of Mayotte”had reacted, Youssouf Attick Ismael, the president of the Maore Committee.
In Mayotte, voices were raised to express the fears aroused by such an operation. The island’s health personnel thus recalled “dramatic consequences” previous large-scale anti-immigration interventions. Some inhabitants from France “are afraid of social and health unrest and anti-police and ‘anti-white’ riots as happened a few years ago”reports Matthieu Guyot, deputy director of the Mayotte hospital, on Twitter.
From Paris, the president of the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights, Jean-Marie Burguburu, also wrote to Gérald Darmanin to urge him to “to renouncer” to this project. He fears a “worsening of fractures and social tensions” in Mayotte and a “attack on respect for the fundamental rights of foreigners in the context of mass expulsions”. Unicef also expressed concern.
Conversely, elected officials openly provide their support. Deputy LR Mansour Kamardine thus called not to vote for the motion of censure against the government, at the end of March, because it would have, according to him, been “postpone, to unknown dates, the urgent Wuambushu operation for the month of April”.