The last blockades which blocked traffic and stifled economic life in Mayotte have been lifted, announced Friday the Minister for Overseas Affairs Marie Guevenoux and a representative of the movement.
“All the barriers are now lifted in Mayotte!
I salute the responsibility of elected officials and collectives,”
Marie
Guevenoux wrote on
to intensify security operations
.
“The three remaining roadblocks were lifted this morning”
on Friday, Safina Soula, president of the Mayotte 2018 citizens' collective, one of the groups at the origin of the “Forces vives” movement which launched dams.
A meeting took place Thursday evening in Mamoudzou between local elected officials and representatives of the
“Forces vives”
to record the lifting of the last roadblocks and
“take stock of the progress of the movement
,” she added.
Another meeting was organized Friday morning with the new prefect of the 101st French department, François-Xavier Bieuville, according to the same source.
“The dialogue was at one point broken, it is reestablished
,” Soula said.
Visit
Marie Guevenoux went to the Indian Ocean archipelago on Tuesday for a visit during which she notably met leaders of the
“Forces vives”
collectives .
Mayotte had been paralyzed for more than a month by roadblocks initially installed by citizen groups protesting against the security situation on the island, plagued by recurring violence by gangs of young people, and against illegal immigration, mostly from neighboring Comoros.
During her visit, Marie Guevenoux asked for the last blockades to be lifted.
She also announced the start of an operation
“Wuambushu 2 from April” , involving
“decommissioning, against immigration and against delinquency”
measures
.
Launched in the spring of 2023, the contested Wuambushu operation aimed in particular to dry up the flow of arrivals of migrants from the Comoros and to destroy the increasingly numerous unsanitary bangas (huts) organized in shantytowns.