2023-04-30 13:04:00
“Ihere, the galvanized door and there, the additional security, the bars to be sure not to be attacked inside”. In the north of Mayotte, the house of Faoulati Sandi is, as often on the French island of Indian Ocean, organized around the “barricade”.
“There, my son’s room, it’s bars so that the windows are not broken, maximum protection”, details this 48-year-old civil servant, mother of four children. “The bay window to bring in the air? Bah, it’s over, it’s also bars”.
“At the neighbors, it’s not better. Those who have the means barricade it”, continues, exasperated, Faoulati Sandi, pointing to the barbed wire gate on which she has now seen.
In Mayotte, insecurity, described as “out of the ordinary” by INSEE statisticians, has fed a climate of fear and paranoia for ten years among its inhabitants, who have shaken up their daily lives and adapted their habits to a feeling of threat. permed.
The inhabitants of the poorest department in France, with very strong economic disparities, fear above all “intrusions”, burglaries attributed to young people in the neighborhoods.
Rolling the window open, phoning in the street, parking a scooter in the street or leaving your car in an unguarded car park… the Mahorais don’t even think about it anymore.
In Majicavo, in his house now overlooked by the slum of “Talus 2” threatened with destruction, Ismaïla Faïza, 42, refrains from any ostentatious behavior. “We are forced to lock ourselves in constantly”, laments the childcare worker, “we cannot walk around with valuables, like a watch”.
Staggered hours
The crime statistics in Mayotte delivered by the Ministry of the Interior are worrying: +16% homicides, +20% thefts with weapons and +33% vehicle thefts in 2022.
Six out of ten inhabitants of the archipelago feel insecure at home or in their neighborhood “that is five to six times more than the inhabitants of France”, according to a study by the statistics institute (Insee) carried out in 2021. And they are four out of ten to give up “often or sometimes” leaving their homes.
Because the other omnipresent fear on this territory of 374 km2 is that of the nocturnal ambushes led by the “coupeurs de route”, these groups of young people who block the road with street furniture or trees to extort motorists.
On Facebook, a group “Actu et Infos Route à Mayotte”, updated in real time by Internet users, lists the road and safety situation by sector for motorists.
School transport is sometimes stoned on the road.
Parents also prefer to avoid entrusting them with their children and employees enjoy a certain tolerance on schedules, staggered to be able to secure family travel.
“We have nowhere to breathe (…) we have nowhere to rest”, argues the mother Faoulati Sandi.
To breathe or breathe a little, families also rely on the police.
Operation “quiet walks”
The very popular hikes on one of the peaks of the island, Mount Choungui (593 m) are done on weekends under the supervision of the gendarmes, present at several points of the route, to avoid leaving walkers alone facing possible attackers.
This operation, called “Matémembezi Ya Ounafassi” (quiet walks) also concerns the beaches. Abandoned for ten years, Mahorais and metropolitans are reclaiming them under the protection of these patrols announced on Facebook.
The head of the island’s gendarmerie, General Olivier Capelle, confirms the psychological impact of these attacks, intended to “ransom, take the effects and + cut + (by putting a machete blow)” for, underlines- it, “mark the spirits”.
“I have the impression that my youth is being stolen from me because now, we can no longer go out at the time we want to have fun outside, with friends”, regrets Moulaika Antoy, student in BTS tourism. “You can’t feel that joy of being young adults and doing a bit of what you want.”
In this climate of permanent fear, most of the young people of Mayotte consider the definitive departure towards the mainland or abroad as their only prospect for the future.
Civil servant Faoulati Sandi understands, who knows that it will be the choice of her four children. “Yes, we start to become paranoid”, she concedes, “it’s one of the steps towards madness and our children will have consequences”.
30/04/2023 13:03:17 – Mamoudzou (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
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