2023-08-01 20:35:17
Twenty-four years after the tragic death of the teenagers Yaguine Koïta and Fodé Tounkara, the same news images follow one another: migratory drama to integrate Europe, various support from Westerners to African leaders, mismatch between the means made available and the reality on the ground. Faced with general indifference, Did Yaguine and Fodé therefore die for nothing? ?
For memory, Yaguine Koïta (born September 25, 1984) and Fodé Tounkara (born April 6, 1985) were stowaways on July 28, 1999 on Sabena Airlines flight 520 from Conakry (Guinea) to Brussels (Belgium). Their frozen dead bodies were discovered on August 2, 1999 in the aircraft’s right rear landing gear at Brussels International Airport. In their belongings, the boys carried in plastic bags their birth certificates, school cards, photos and a letter. This letter was widely published in the media around the world. Here is the full text:
« Excellencies, Members and leaders of Europe, We have the honorable pleasure and the great confidence to write you this letter to tell you about the objective of our trip and the suffering of us, the children and young people of Africa. .
But first, we present to you the most delicious, adorable and respected greetings in life. To this end, be our support and our help, be towards us, in Africa, you who should you ask for help? We implore you, for the love of your continent, for your feelings towards your people, your family and above all the affinity and love of your children whom you love like life. In addition, for the love and friendship of our creator God the Almighty who has given you all the good experiences, riches and powers to build and organize your continent well to become the most beautiful and admirable friend of others.
Members and leaders of Europe, it is for your solidarity and your kindness that we call on you for help in Africa. Help us, we are suffering a lot in Africa, we have problems and some lack of children’s rights.
On the problem level, we have war, disease, food, etc. As for the rights of the child, it is in Africa, and especially in Guinea, we have schools but a great lack of education and teaching. Except in private schools, you can have a good education and good teaching, but you need a lot of money and we, our parents, are poor. Survival here is to feed ourselves, then we have sports schools such as football, basketball, [illisible ?] etc.
So in this case, we Africans, and especially African children and young people, we ask you to make a big effective organization for Africa so that it is progressed.
So, if you see that we sacrifice ourselves and expose our lives, it is because we suffer too much in Africa and we need you to fight against poverty and put an end to war in Africa. Nevertheless, we want to study, and we ask you to help us study to be like you in Africa.
Finally, we beg you to apologize very very much for daring to write this letter to you as you, the great characters to whom we owe a lot of respect. And don’t forget that it is to you that we must blame (sic) the weakness of our strength in Africa. »
Dated July 29, three days before the departure of the teenagers, the message written in French evokes the desperate situation of their country in which half the population does not have a dollar a day to live on. The two young people were in school: we found on them a student card from a college in Conakry, with a photo. After a stopover in Bamako in Mali, the Airbus A330-300 of the Belgian company Sabena coming from Conakry landed around 5:45 a.m. in Brussels. Yaguine and Fodé had put on several layers of clothes: three pants, a jacket, a big sweater and a cap. But at 10,000 meters above sea level, the temperature drops to -50°C. The wheels, which friction can heat up to 200°C at the time of take-off, momentarily improve the conditions in the passenger compartment, but the chances of survival remain extremely slim, especially since stowaways risk being crushed by the landing gear when it folds. In addition, the rarefied oxygen quickly causes asphyxiation.
indifference and hypocrisy
After 24 years of silence on the part of European and African political authorities and the media world, while similar dramas continue to occur, it is deplorable to note that in Guinea no steps have been taken to give meaning to the sacrifice of these two teenagers. The month of June devoted to childhood passed without mentioning their memory. The Yimbaya primary school that the deceased attended is abandoned to its sad fate. We still remember when the announcement of the disappearance of Yaguine and Fodé, our authorities felt sorry for their fate, by leading a debate on the government’s policy on children. Professions of faith were formulated, but in the end no materialization. What more do we need to incite our decision makers to change the order of things?
And all the more so since since the cry of despair of these two young people and their tragic death, the initiatives undertaken to offer African youth a better quality of life, good study conditions and effective job prospects or sustainable income-generating initiatives remain very insufficient. Several thousand candidates for illegal immigration try to cross the sea every year to reach Europe, in the hope of a better life. For most of them, the dream ends in a nightmare or in a tragic way. By force of circumstances, the Mediterranean has become the cemetery of migrants. In the indifference of the African Union and heads of state.
Thierno Saidou Diakite
#remembers #Yaguine #Fodé