2023-10-09 03:23:50
Housing, housing estates under construction, and even a former tax office. Several explosions targeted different places in Corsica on the evening of Sunday October 8.
Five homes, several of which are second homes, in villages around Ajaccio – Bastelicaccia, Tavaco, Vico, Villanova, Vignanello – suffered damage in a succession of almost simultaneous explosions between 10:30 p.m. and 10:45 p.m. informed Agence France-Presse (AFP) the Ajaccio public prosecutor’s office. They caused no injuries and no tags or messages of protest have yet been found at the scene.
From a source close to the case, mentioning “a new blue night”, another explosion targeted the old Ajaccio tax center at 11:40 p.m. An investigation was opened for destruction by dangerous means and transport of explosives, entrusted jointly to the research section of the gendarmerie and the police judicial. The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office will be notified of these acts, the prosecutor’s office said.
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In Haute-Corse, five housing estates under construction were also targeted by explosions, south of Bastia, in Lucciana, in Cap Corse in Erbalunga and in the eastern plain in Santa-Lucia-di-Moriani, detailed to AFP another source close to the file. Again, no injuries are to be regretted.
Increase in arson and explosions
For almost two years, Corsica has experienced an increase in arson attacks and explosions mainly targeting second homes, most often accompanied by nationalist tags. These actions were claimed, some by the Corsican National Liberation Front (FLNC), others by the GCC (Ghjuventù Clandestina Corsa), an underground Corsican youth movement.
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According to a judicial source, in August fifty investigations “in connection with arson or acts of destruction of various kinds” in Corsica had been opened by the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office since the beginning of the year. There were twenty-two in 2022, three in 2021 and four in 2020. The anti-terrorism unit of the Paris court was responsible, on the same date, for fourteen judicial investigations linked to Corsican terrorism, she specified.
The last “blue night” of this kind dates back to the night of March 9 to 10, 2019, facts for which the two main defendants were sentenced to six years in prison in April 2022 by the Paris judicial court. That night, fires or explosions seriously damaged seven homes in Corse-du-Sud and Haute-Corse. Even without a claim, the prosecutor then judged “the terrorist dimension” facts “fully characterized”.
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