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Operation Wuambushu | |
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Operation Name | Operation Wuambushu |
Roster | |
Executed by | French military/police |
Mission | |
Objective | expelling illegal immigrants, destroying slums, and fighting crime on the Mayotte islands |
Timeline | |
Date begin | Before February 22, 2023 |
Results | |
Accounting |
Operation Wuambushu ("recovery" in Shimaore) is an ongoing French military-police operation in Mayotte, [1] aimed at expelling illegal immigrants, destroying slums, and fighting crime on the islands. [2]
The operation was revealed on February 22, 2023, by the satirical weekly Le Canard enchaîné , [3] and its launch was confirmed by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin on April 20, 2023, during an interview with Le Figaro . [4]
For several years the French government has been occupied with the migratory situation in Mayotte. Since 2019, it has increased its means of opposing unauthorized immigration on the island, in particular through the continuous sea presence of interceptor boats and through aerial surveillance. [5] Already in 2021, the French treatment of the situation in Mayotte has been accused with multiple violations of human rights. [6]
Visiting Mayotte in December 2022, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin once again expressed his desire to strengthen the fight. [7]
Approved in February by the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron and orchestrated by Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior and Overseas Territories, this large-scale operation aims to dislodge a majority of irregular migrants from neighboring Comoros, and to demolish many sheet metal huts exposed to natural hazards. [8] [9]
As part of the operation, 119 police reinforcements were deployed on the island, among them 71 police officers from mainland France, 3 police officers from Réunion and 45 CRS. Since April 17, 2023, 164 CRS have already arrived in the territory. [10]
Several Mayotte collectives aimed at expelling migrants from the island support the Wuambushu operation, in particular the Collective of citizens of Mayotte law 1901, the Collective of citizens of Mayotte movement 2018, the Réma collective, the Women Leaders and the Codim. The latter wrote to the Minister of the Interior asking for the continuation of the operation. [11]
At the political level, the operation is supported by the two deputies from Mayotte Estelle Youssouffa [12] and Mansour Kamardine. [13]
In a forum, 170 health personnel on the island recalled "the dramatic consequences" of previous large-scale interventions in the fight against immigration, referring in particular to the "generation of situations at risk of epidemic infection", the "limitation of access to care" or even "delays in treatment" for certain pathologies that they would have caused. [14]
On April 5, Comorian civil society organizations held a press conference to warn of a "massacre to come". [15]
The president of the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH), Jean-Marie Burguburu, wrote to Gérald Darmanin, urging him to "give up" on this project, considering the risk of "worsening fractures and tensions in an already very fragile context [...] and the violation of respect for the fundamental rights of foreigners in the context of mass expulsions".
The association supporting exiles in France, Utopia 56, spoke of a "raid of an unprecedented scale in order to saturate justice and thus circumvent the rule of law to deport with a vengeance [...], the beginnings of 'a filthy communication operation'. [16]
The President of the Comoros, Azali Assoumani asked the French government to abandon the operation. [17]
UNICEF was concerned "about the impact that this large-scale operation is likely to have on the realization of the rights of the most vulnerable children present on the territory, in particular foreign minors and minors in conflict with the law". [18]
Azali Assoumani is a Comorian politician and military officer who has served as President of the Comoros from 2002 to 2006 and again since 2016, except for a brief period in 2019. He became head of state after staging a coup d'état in 1999 and was elected president in 2002, 2016, 2019 and 2024. He also served as Chairperson of the African Union February 2023 to February 2024.
The Maritime Gendarmerie is a component of the French National Gendarmerie under operational control of the chief of staff of the French Navy. It employs 1,157 personnel and operates around thirty patrol boats and high-speed motorboats distributed on the littoral waterways of France. Like their land-based colleagues the Gendarmes Maritime are military personnel carry out policing operations in addition to their primary role as a coast guard service. They also carry out provost duties within the French Navy.
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Gérald Moussa Darmanin is a French politician who has been serving as Minister of the Interior in the governments of Prime Ministers Jean Castex, Élisabeth Borne and Gabriel Attal since 2020.
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The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached the French overseas department and region of Mayotte on 10 March 2020. On 31 March, the first person died of COVID-19. In late April, the virus was out of control, and actively circulating on the island. On 16 August, Mayotte has been green listed.
The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached the Comoros on 30 April 2020, and by 4 May the first death was announced.
Events in the year 2020 in the Comoros.
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Zakia Madi was a Mahoran activist and a member of the Chatouilleuses and who was killed by the Comorian army during a protest in 1969. Both the market and a school in Mayotte have been renamed in her honour.
Estelle Youssouffa is a French politician who has served as a Member of the French Parliament for Mayotte's 1st constituency since June 2022.
Events in the year 2023 in France.
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In early 2024, a political and economic crisis broke out in the French territory of Mayotte.