It was a few days ago.
Adel Amara, in his thirties from Villiers-sur-Marne, is passing through the neighboring Bois-l'Abbé district in Champigny-sur-Marne.
In this city with which he has known only tensions throughout his youth, young people play football in the city-stadium.
He approaches to greet them.
“It was guys from Villiers and Champigny who were playing a match and getting confused.
They were happy, they were laughing.
They did this match between them, the little ones, they no longer need us to find each other!
»The big brother leaves again« so touched to see that ».
Young people from the two cities having a good time together, that still seemed unimaginable a few years ago.
"At the time, not one of us went to the Lycée de Champigny without a knife on him", recount with hindsight five or six "big brothers" from the two districts to the youngest gathered a few days ago.
At the initiative of the Kana Jeunesse d'avenir association, a friendly debate, around a raclette, is organized around the theme of gang wars.
"This war of the gangs, we ourselves inherited it"
The lynching of Yuriy in Paris, the death of Lilibelle in Essonne and the increase in brawls in recent weeks could raise fears of the worst between Les Noues and Bois-l'Abbé.
The assault of a high school student in the lower part of Champigny, against a backdrop of the rap war, and a few days before, the two seriously injured teenagers near the town hall, are all the talk.
"At the moment between Villiers and us, it no longer exists and there is no risk that it will happen again", maintains Abdoulay, a 15-year-old boy from Bois-l'Abbé, for whom this is even more of a subject.
“We go to the same birthdays on weekends, I have very good friends in Les Noues.
It's all over.
"
However, it took willpower to put an end to a rivalry that had lasted well for twenty years.
“This war of the gangs, we had inherited it ourselves.
But after a theft of caps, it had become really serious, remembers Amadou Kebe, who has since founded the association France Afrik Terre 2 Kultur.
We no longer spoke to each other at all, some had even stopped high school, quite simply because he was in Champigny and as a resident of Villiers it was hot to go there.
"
PODCAST. Gang war robs them of high school
As adults, the former brawlers converted into leaders of associations or companies, wanted to stop this violence.
“When we found ourselves at the bedside of a stabbed high school student, who finished in intensive care in September 2017, we said to ourselves that's enough, says Serge, in his forties today.
We felt guilty for having transmitted this violence to them.
"
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The former enemies of the 1990s, Amadou Kebe, Mamadou Sy, Koula Kanamakasy, Mamadou Diabira get together and decide to "reframe the little ones".
“We're not going to lie, we shook them, we talked to them loudly.
We have said:
if you continue, you will have to deal with us.
Do you all want to end up in the morgue?
Remember the big brothers.
A stay in the mountains is even organized for the handful of hard-working people.
“We forced them to make peace, to forgive each other.
We told them:
neither of the two districts lowers its head in history, we are the ones saying stop.
"
Sport as a unifying means
Once this base was laid, events were organized.
First on neutral ground to go play indoor football, then in the two districts, but always at the joint initiative of associations of Noues and Bois-l'Abbé.
In 2018, 67 boys, from the cities of Hautes-Noues in Villiers, Mordacs on the Chennevières side, Pavé de Noisy-le-Grand (Seine-Saint-Denis) and obviously Bois-l'Abbé in Champigny met around of the balloon.
Football tournaments that have largely helped to strengthen ties.
The associations had also offered the teens of Champigny prime places for the 2018 Koneteam boxing gala, in Villiers.
Inter-neighborhood football tournaments have greatly contributed to improving relations.
MixCité Association
Then, in October, that year, cross training sessions made the enemy brothers sweat together.
"The tournaments I go there every time, the atmosphere with Villiers is super good", assures Khalifa, 16 years old.
“Now there are no more stories.
And since we have perspective on our actions, we would like it to serve as an example elsewhere, insists Serge.
Here we started with what the little ones liked in both neighborhoods, especially football and boxing.
We didn't need the state or religion.
But our actions can save lives, both young victims of assault and those who are more focused on it than on their studies.
"
“I remember that I thought more about my knife or my fire extinguisher in my bag than about continuing my studies, regrets Adel Amara.
Afterwards, I worked in Champigny, so as I knew the little ones on both sides, that helped.
"But the big brother is still a little surprised to see" how much today we appreciate each other with the guys from Bois-l'Abbé ".
The concluding word goes to Amadou Kebe: "We went to war and we became friends by taking care of the little ones".
An uncertain origin and tragic events
The rivalries that have become chronic between the cities of Villiers and Champigny date back to the 1970s. The origin remains unknown to current generations.
In the 1990s,
a theft of hats due to nebulous circumstances revived the old guerrillas.
In September 1998, in
front of the Marx-Dormoy high school in Champigny, a fight broke out between young people from the two cities.
One of them will go to the assizes of minors for attempted murder.
In the 2000s,
faced with the upsurge in violence, associations and parents from the two municipalities set up a parent-child collective, with around fifteen associations, from parents of students to Senegalese workers, including mediators and socio-cultural centers. .
Between 2016 and 2017,
tensions rose a notch.
In May 2016, dozens of hooded and armed young people gathered in front of the Langevin-Wallon high school in Champigny.
A young person is injured.
The teachers exercise their right of withdrawal for two weeks.
In November, it was the turn of a Villiérain to be injured by about twenty young people from Bois-l'Abbé, armed with axes, batons and sticks.
May 2017 will see three more wounded, one with a knife in the thigh, the other beaten with a jack, the last one has a fractured jaw and a sunken eye, during brawls that erupt in front of the high schools of Champigny and Chennevières.
In September 2017,
the last big fight sent a student from the Marx-Dormoy high school in Champigny to the hospital, in intensive care, after a gang of Hautes-Noues fell on him, armed with knives, crutches and jack .
He will receive three months of total work interruption.
