A man was killed Thursday during a brawl near a high school in Mamoudzou, in Mayotte, AFP learned from police and judicial sources, confirming information from Mayotte La 1ère. According to the Mamoudzou public prosecutor, the victim was not a high school student but a man in his thirties. He was killed after receiving at least one blow from a knife. Another man was more lightly injured, according to the same source. An investigation was opened and eight people were arrested. An autopsy is planned for Monday, the prosecution said.
The events took place Thursday afternoon in the heart of the capital of Mayotte Mamoudzou, near the Younoussa-Bamana high school, in a usually quiet residential area. According to police sources, a fight and rivalries between gangs, common in Mayotte, are at the origin of the tragedy. Attacks in schools or near establishments have become common in Mayotte, as have clashes between groups of young people from rival villages.
At the end of September, two young people were killed with knives in Mayotte, including a high school student during a brawl. In May, a 16-year-old teenager had already lost his life after being stabbed in Barakani (central west). At the end of September, the prefect of Mayotte, François-Xavier Bieuville, welcomed in the Mahorais media a drop in “general delinquency of 5.8%” between January and October, compared to the same period in 2023, in the French archipelago in the Indian Ocean facing endemic insecurity.
