Soon the end of the blockages?
Citizen groups who have been protesting in Mayotte for three weeks against insecurity and uncontrolled immigration announced this Wednesday that the roadblocks “will be maintained” for “a few more days”.
They are giving themselves time to study Gérald Darmanin's written commitments in favor of the island, Safina Soula, a representative of this movement, told AFP.
The letter from the Minister of the Interior, which follows his visit on Sunday, “we have just received it and we need to exchange ideas with each other”, explained this representative of the “Forces vives”, the banner under which they grouped citizen collectives.
“Analyzing the mail will take a few days.
We had roadblocks for three weeks, we can still wait a few days,” she added.
Also read “We remain suspicious”: in Mayotte, residents have mixed feelings about Gérald Darmanin’s announcements
The citizen collectives met in a congress on Wednesday.
The decision to maintain the dams is “important and difficult to make”, recognizes Safina Soula.
“I don’t want to give the feeling of being on the side of the State,” she said.
She confided her “feeling of bitterness”, stressing that “the most difficult problem, which has not been resolved, remains insecurity” in this small territory in the Indian Ocean.
What Darmanin's letter contains
In his letter co-signed by the new Minister Delegate for Overseas Marie Guévenoux, Gérald Darmanin provides details on what he announced during his express trip to the island.
The “emergency for Mayotte” bill will be presented to the Council of Ministers “on May 22,” he announced.
The text should include the end of the territorialized residence permit, one of the main demands of the “Forces vives”.
This system, specific to Mayotte, currently prevents foreigners, mainly Comorians and Malagasy, with a local residence permit from traveling elsewhere in France.
Gérald Darmanin also reiterates the government's commitment “to put an end to the acquisition of French nationality in Mayotte in application of
land law
”.
The new Wambushu operation intended to combat illegal immigration, substandard housing and delinquency is called a “civil-military operation” in the letter.
VIDEO.
Traveling to Mayotte, Gérald Darmanin announces the end of soil law
The minister explains that the “maritime iron curtain” that he had announced will consist of a deployment of reinforced resources of the national navy with interception capabilities in territorial waters, detection by new radars, drones and means aerial surveillance.
He calls on "all the active forces of Mayotte to lift the roadblocks which today are totally suffocating the functioning of the island and hindering the action of the police in the fight against irregular immigration and insecurity." ".
If the roadblocks are actually lifted, he promises that Marie Guévenoux will go “in the coming days to Mayotte to work on all issues with collectives, economic players and elected officials”.