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The authorities are concerned about the increase in violence. And find that there are more young people among the victims and perpetrators.
Amine Kessaci grew up in the 13th arrondissement north of Marseille. In a cité, one of the many large housing estates with thousands of apartments. Where the drug gangs control the territory.
The 19-year-old lost his older brother in a gang war three years ago: “He was found murdered in the trunk of a car. My brother dropped out of school early and set foot in the drug scene.” Once you’re in there, it’s almost impossible to get out.
Legend:
Amine Kessaci: “Once you’re in the drug scene, there’s almost no way out.”
SRF
Kessaci criticizes the ghettoization of the north of Marseille. Public services would disappear, and the neighborhood police had also withdrawn.
The only perspective for the future is the milieu: “The largest employer in the districts is the drug trade. That’s a problem. Many live in miserable condition. Single mothers who have to work all day and evenings and have four to five children do not manage to supervise them sufficiently.»
Many young people fall into the hands of drug gangs and some are already working in the milieu as 13-year-olds. Eric Mangin, a juvenile judge at the Marseilles court, is observing this with concern: «Recently I had a young person who stood guard every day from 12 noon to midnight for 100 euros a day. It works almost like human trafficking, the misery of the people is exploited. »
He tells the minors that if they get involved in the drug trade, they will definitely go to prison. Either in state prison or they are trapped in the settlement because they have no prospect of integration outside of the drug trade.
It has to stop, it’s getting more and more brutal. They were children, something has to be done to ensure that they don’t get sucked into the milieu.
The young helpers were often used for acts of revenge – because they would be punished less severely and the drug lords didn’t want to get their hands dirty, according to the juvenile judge.
Teenagers as contract killers and as victims of retaliatory acts – this is happening more and more, says the prefect of the Bouches-du-Rhône department, Frédérique Camilleri: “Since the beginning of the year we have had an increase in murders in connection with drug trafficking. Sometimes young people are recruited as contract killers, for example via social networks. They should kill the competitors or impress relatives.”
Legend:
Drug gangs characterize the northern quarters of Marseille.
SRF
Such an act happened in May in a quiet neighborhood of single-family homes in the east of Marseille. Three young men were killed in a car by a tirade of gunfire early that morning.
Displacement of gang wars
«The young people are not from this area, but from a settlement north of Marseille. This act of retaliation could have happened anywhere. This worries us because it is a shift of gang warfare to quiet residential areas,” says the mayor of the affected arrondissement, Sylvain Souvestre.
The increase in violence is also worrying the residents of the neighborhoods north of Marseille. “It has to stop, it’s getting more and more brutal. They were children, something has to be done to ensure that they don’t get sucked into the milieu,” says Zahia Meziane. Meziane is a member of a collective of families against violence in the settlements.
Amine Kessaci also wants to take action against violence in the settlements. With his association Confiance, he tries to prevent more young people from joining the gangs. A difficult mission.