Mayotte: “We will continue Operation Wuambushu as long as necessary”, assures Darmanin

Diplomatic tensions with the Comoros, suspension of the destruction of a slum… Operation Wuambushu in Mayotte has seen many twists and turns since its launch last Monday. The State wishes to appease the island, victim of illegal immigration and affected by major acts of violence between rival gangs in the department.

Many arrests

“About 1,800 police and gendarmes were sent to Mayotte” for the operation, indicates at the microphone of Europe 1, Gérald Darmanin. Despite the setbacks for a week, the Minister of the Interior assures him: “The operation has begun”. “The primary objective is the arrests of criminals who sow death in Mayotte. Again in the night from Thursday to Friday, there were 15 arrests. We thus made more than 25 arrests out of the 60 that we had to make of criminal gangs, and that we present to justice. All this in a week”, he underlines.

And he assures him: “The operations of destruction of the slums are allowed. There is only one media operation which was stopped by the Mamoudzou judicial court. And we called on Saint-Denis. But other slums are destroyed”.

A long-lasting operation?

And if the tensions between France and the Comoros, neighboring country of Mayotte, are important, Gérald Darmanin underlines “that for the first time in the History of the Republic, there is no more kwassa kwassa, these boats which are the vehicle of illegal immigration between the Comoros and Mayotte”.

“There are no more smugglers and there are no more kwassa kwassa who disembark, who leave the Comoros for Mayotte”, he welcomes. And concludes: “We will continue this Wuambushu operation as much as necessary. There is no date and we will leave the number of police and gendarmes necessary for Mayotte to become a normal, classic and magnificent island again” .