“We have to understand”, testifies Hager Ben Aouissi, survivor who saved her daughter that day

Hager Ben Aouissi was at the candy stand with her 4-year-old daughter, Kenza, on July 14, 2016, on the Promenade des Anglais, in Nice, when she saw “the truck ride on the sidewalk“. That day, she decides to jump between the wheels for “protect his daughter“, with “his body“. Survivor of the attack, president of the association “Une Voie des Enfants”, she confided in franceinfo Monday, September 5, the day of the opening of the trial of the Nice attack before the Assize Court Paris special.

>> Trial of the July 14 attack in Nice: the key figures of this extraordinary hearing

franceinfo: What do you remember of this evening of July 14, 2016?

Hager Ben Aouissi : We were like thousands of people on this Promenade des Anglais to celebrate France’s freedom day, as a family, with my parents, my sister, my niece and my daughter Kenza. It’s Kenza alerting me. She tells me, mom, there’s a truck. At this moment, I understand that something serious is happening. I’m at the candy stand. I turn around, I see that the truck goes up on the sidewalk, the time that I turn around, I understand that it hits people, and that it rushes into us. At the time, I think first that it is someone who has lost his brakes and then I understand that he enters everyone. I tell myself, my daughter is going to die crushed before my eyes.

LIVE – Nice attack trial ➡️ Hager Ben Aouissi, survivor of the Nice attack, remembers that evening: “I tell myself ‘my daughter is going to die crushed before my eyes’. I can’t run. I will protect her with my body and that I can pass between the two wheels.” pic.twitter.com/WQ6yZ6OtgP

— franceinfo (@franceinfo) September 5, 2022

At that moment you decide to protect her, and jump between the wheels of the truck?

I can’t run, I don’t have time, I want to protect my daughter, I tell myself that I’m going to protect her with my body, that I’m going to try to get under the truck. I tell myself that I may be well placed and that I can pass between the two wheels. I go to bed quickly on Kenza.

“The only memory I have is that I was in total darkness, with an excruciating noise, like the iron curtain of a store falling.”

Hager Ben Aouissi

at franceinfo

Then suddenly, I see a little light, the truck is in front of me, it overtakes me.

Do you understand that it is an attack when you get up after the passage of the truck?

I took a while to get up. I was a little stunned and hurt. But when I get up, it shoots everywhere. There, I understand that it is an attack. Even those who shoot, for me, they are terrorists, at the time, I don’t know that it is the police who shoot the driver of the truck.

Your daughter, Kenza, was 4 at the time, she’s 10 now. How is she ?

She is still very badly. I feel like it was like yesterday in his mind.

From the day of the attack, Kenza lost her childhood, she was bruised like all of us, but beyond that, she built herself with this horror.

Hager Ben Aouissi

at franceinfo

She was 4 years old, she didn’t know what death was. She knew, she saw it with her own eyes. She saw people dying, dying, shredded, crushed, under the wheels of this truck. We are not ready for these images. Kenza remembers horrible things. Sometimes she has fits of reviviscence, she says what she has seen.

You say your daughter became a baby again that day. What do you mean ?

The next day, after the hospital, we were in the psychological cell. She met the child psychiatrist who still follows her. The first time she talked about this, she said “Mama she won the truck, she put me back in her womb“. She remained in that state of a baby. She puts on diapers, she gets over it, she no longer holds back, she takes the bottle, the pacifier, she no longer sleeps except on me, whereas it’s was a very independent baby.

>> Trial of the July 14 attack in Nice: psychological support dedicated to children “to prepare support in reality”

She was walking at 9 months, she was clean, did not take the pacifier. Today, she has a huge attention deficit disorder. This has an impact on education. She has been seeing a speech therapist twice a week ever since. She has a permanent feeling of insecurity, wherever she is. She no longer lives, she is in survival.

This trial, 6 years later, begins without the terrorist, killed that evening, without a direct accomplice in the attack at the bar. What do you expect?

I have several expectations. This trial, first of all, has a duty towards the collective memory. It is a trial that is extraordinary, of international scope. Then it is about justice. The justice of the Republic has a role to play, it must name things and – through the investigation – determine the guilt of the accused.

“The orality of the debates must allow the civil parties to lift the veil, to shed light on certain gray areas.”

Hager Ben Aouissi

at franceinfo

Yes, the terrorist is dead, but we need to understand how he set this up and with whom. We are waiting for justice to be done. This is an important step for us, the victims, on our path to reconstruction. It is a key to being able to move forward. Finally, this trial must allow the victims to free their speech.