With a flash ball in the chest, the agents of the Mayotte anti-crime brigade bring out one by one the boys who were still sleeping upstairs a few hours ago. The deputy principal of the Kaweni vocational high school thunders: « CIt's not young people we're bringing out, but thugs, delinquents! » In the establishment transformed into an emergency accommodation center following the passage of Cyclone Chido, the small group became persona non grata. The day before, a young man came to fight with them and tried to break down the door with a machete. An accomplice, in his twenties, looks at his shoes, looking embarrassed: “It's a shame to be kicked out by the police, especially for me. We are not bandits, we even helped the director to clear and cut down the trees. »
The gang sits in front of the school and wonders where to go. On the heights, everything has not yet been rebuilt, and some are even preparing their return to the neighboring islands. “For a lot of Anjouanese, the cyclone was a trigger. I know people around me who want to go back to the Comoros at all costs”continues the young man, his arms leaning on an electric cable which previously connected the two blocks. Delinquents? “Many students are brilliant, but once they have their baccalaureate, they cannot continue their studies. I know some who were twisted at that moment. Obviously, we have to have a financial situation at some point. »
“They want to take advantage of Chido to kick out all the foreigners!” »
Seen from Kaweni, the debates agitating France on immigration to Mayotte leave him wondering. “The ministers came, they didn’t help us. These people from the State only talk about immigration but don't help us, they want to take advantage of Chido to kick out all the foreigners! Even the electricity, they don’t put it back here, even though lives are at stake”sighs the young man.
On the island, immigration is a hot topic. Marine Le Pen, who visited the archipelago at the start of the week, won first place in the 2022 presidential election with 59.1% of the votes cast. Today more than 120,000 foreign people live in Mayotte. For years, groups of Mahorais have defended a hard line and demanded strong measures at the borders, particularly on arrivals from the Comoros.
In front of the Younoussa-Bamana high school in Mamoudzou on Friday January 3 in the morning, the exchanges were tense. Around ten parents of students are present in front of the establishment. Some mothers display signs, “Liberate our high schools”, “Liberate our colleges”. Here, the high school was requisitioned shortly before the cyclone and transformed into an emergency accommodation center. “It is time for these people to vacate the premises so that our children can resume classes normally,ance Fatima. Even rooms that had not been impacted by the cyclone were looted and ransacked. » In Mayotte, the start of the school year is scheduled for January 13 for teachers and the 20th for their students. Present alongside them, Safina Soula, president of the citizens' collective of Mayotte. For several years, she and her collective have been involved in all the fights on the island, particularly that against illegal immigration.
“Every day the number of people increases in the high school and now they are demanding rehousing”denounces Nadia, a mother of a student also present. “Arrivals by kwassa are increasing, and we know that people who arrive in Mayotte from Great Lakes Africa immediately ask where the Bamana high school is”she says, without supporting her statement. “In any case, there is no emergency reception on the island. They will have to leave, call 115 or the associations paid by the State to accommodate them. » For Nadia, “These people want to benefit, hear that there is rehousing and therefore arrive by boat. This cannot continue.”
Mahorais and Comorians against Africans
In high school, Vannessa, a refugee from the Congo, is increasingly afraid of these collective attacks. “The Mahorais are coming to chase us out of here, but we have nowhere to go. The cyclone blew away all our houses. » Behind the gates of the establishment, the voices of the students' mothers are heard. “This is not the first time they have come, they even threaten to send their sons to make us leave”continues the young woman. “We hear all the time, from Mahorais and Comorians alike, that they don't want Africans here, we are not welcome. »
With emergency accommodation centers scheduled to be vacated by December 31, Mamoudzou town hall cut off water and electricity at Bamana high school on December 1is January, “while there are children, pregnant women”, underlines Ambroise, also a refugee. “Last week, when a man from mainland came to help us, the Mahorais told him that it was not his island, that he did not have to bring us anything to drink or eat because in their eyes, we we have nothing to do here. »
After the passage of the cyclone, some French people took the full brunt, sometimes for the first time, of the discourse that has divided the archipelago since the departmentalization in 2011. This is the case of Arnaud, recently arrived in Mayotte. The day after December 14, he went to help the Lycée des Lumières, which had also been transformed into an emergency accommodation center. “On the sixth or seventh day, we saw the first people arrive from the town hall. And very quickly, we understood that helping refugees in an irregular situation was the least of their worries”he remembers. During the ministerial visit to the neighboring college, he even surprised a town hall employee helping himself to the trays of food reserved for the disaster victims. Caught in the act, the man replied, “the Mahorais must also be able to feed themselves”.
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A bill presented Wednesday January 8
The bill says “emergency” on the reconstruction of Mayotte must be presented on Wednesday January 8 to the Council of Ministers. The text should include provisions to reduce administrative delays and ease urban planning standards.
This law must be accompanied by the creation of a public refoundation establishment of Mayotte led by a personality, based on the model of that used for Notre-Dame.
A second bill says “refoundation” from Mayotte must be drafted within the next three months to redefine the future of the department by implementing longer-term measures.
