The ballet of excavators continued Tuesday in Mayotte to demolish the tin huts of Talus 2, important slum of this French territory in the Indian Ocean. The operation is expected to last until the end of the week.

The demolitions began Monday morning, marking the real start of the disputed security operation "Wuambushu" which aims to reduce substandard housing, fight crime and expel irregular migrants, most of whom came from the neighboring Comoros archipelago.

The demolition had been suspended by the administrative court

Initially scheduled for April 25, the demolition of Talus 2 was suspended by the administrative court of Mayotte in Mamoudzou, before two new court decisions ruled in favor of the State, the last dating from Wednesday. The "displacement" began Monday at 7:30 am local time in the district of Majicavo, in the commune of Koungou, in the north of Grande Terre, the main island of the poorest department of France. The excavators, who were Monday at the bottom of the slum, demolished Tuesday the sheet metal houses in the heights, where the metal collided under the force of the machines.



"It hurts my heart to see this"

Workers sort the remains of Talus 2, which are piled up behind red and white ribbon below. The wood is placed in a fire, near the road, in front of two containers. Some goats and chickens seem lost in the paths they were taking the day before.

Families silently watch the parade of machines whose strong arms scrape, the earth and stone of the houses in hard. "It hurts my heart to see this, people left yesterday, we have no news of them. And here it will last all week, "sighs a man, who prefers to remain anonymous. The gendarmes were present in large numbers all around the area. The arrival of machines and skips almost completely congested traffic all around 7:30 am local.

The services of the State have counted "162 huts to demolish" in this slum, had said Monday the prefect, Thierry Suquet. Half of the families in the neighborhood "have been rehoused," he said. In total, the authorities plan to destroy a thousand substandard housing in Mayotte over several months. Of the estimated 350,000 inhabitants of Mayotte, half do not have French nationality. Only a third of the inhabitants of slums have it.

  • Society
  • Mayotte
  • Operation Wuambushu
  • Housing
  • Insalubrity
  • Slum