Graffiti of the acronym GCC, for Ghjuventud Clandestina Corsa (Clandestine Corsican Youth), written on the wall of a building in Ajaccio, February 10, 2023. PASCAL POCHARD-CASABIANCA / AFP
Corsica has known for several months an upsurge in arson targeting second homes, claimed by a new group, the GCC.
The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) has taken up investigations into damage committed between Sunday and Monday on two second homes in Corsica belonging to owners from the continent, AFP learned on Monday.
These homes were burned in Pietrosella, a coastal town in southern Corsica, we learned from judicial sources, confirming information from Corse-Matin.
“Armed arm of a revolutionary movement”
Tags “CCG(Ghjuventù Clandestina Corsa) were discovered Sunday afternoon by the gendarmes on the walls of these two houses, in a housing estate composed almost exclusively of second homes.
Heavily damaged by the flames, they were unoccupied at the time. “It was the owner of one of the houses who noticed the damage this weekend, when he had not been here for a long time“Said the Ajaccio prosecution. The damage to the second house was spotted by investigators later.
Read also“Corsican Clandestine Youth”, a new armed group, claims 17 attacks
During the night from Sunday to Monday, around two o’clock in the morning, a third second home unoccupied at the time of the events was also badly damaged by the explosion of a gas cylinder in Moriani Plage (Haute-Corse), a learned AFP, from the Bastia prosecutor’s office, confirming information from France 3 Corsica. “No registration was noted on the spot. The investigation is entrusted to the research section and the research brigade of the gendarmerie. The PNAT was informed of these facts“, told AFP Arnaud Viornery, the public prosecutor of Bastia.
These damages come as a new clandestine group called “Ghjuventu Clandestina Corsa(GCC, Youth Clandestine Corsica, Editor’s note) announced its creation in early February.
“In the footsteps of the FLNC”
Presenting himself as “the armed wing of a revolutionary movement“, this group whose acronym is associated with twenty arson attacks that have occurred in recent months on the Mediterranean island, claims to walk “in the footsteps of the FLNC(Corsican National Liberation Front).
Since the appearance of this acronym, on August 4, 2022, on the facade of a villa in Bastelicaccia (Corse-du-Sud) targeted by arson, this movement has claimed 17 actions against second homes, buildings under construction , construction companies and tourist establishments. The National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office took up “the whole GCC file“, had indicated at the beginning of February the prosecutor of Ajaccio, before the announcement of the creation of this group.
TO HAVE ALSO – Corse-du-Sud: a new second home burnt down