To protest against Operation Wuambushu, which aims to dislodge illegal migrants from the slums of Mayotte, members of collectives block access to several health establishments.
Access to the Mamoudzou Hospital Center and other healthcare establishments in Mayotte have been blocked for several days by members of collectives who intend to denounce the refusal of the Comorian authorities to accept people expelled from the territory as part of Operation Wuambushu .
Earlier this week, several members of the collective of citizens of Mayotte decided to prevent patients from accessing the Mamoudzou hospital. A few meters away, the Jacaranda consultation and care center was completely blocked at the end of last week and closed its doors “until further notice”. The blockages around the dispensaries were noted in Dzoumogné, in the north, in Kahani, in the center, or even in Pamandzi, in Petite-Terre.
The white plan triggered
On Friday, the management of the Hospital Center indicated in a press release that it had “decided to trigger the white plan” involving the closure of the CMR of Dzoumogné, following attacks and acts of vandalism on the site.
“There were clashes during the day between the police and young delinquents in front of the Dzoumogné college. At the end of the afternoon, a dozen young people managed to break into the CMR (Centre Medical Reference) of Dzoumogné taking advantage of the entry of an ambulance. They wanted to attack the members of the collective who were there who took refuge with the nursing staff in the buildings. There was an injured person among the collective,” Jean-Mathieu Defour, director general of the Center Hospitalier de Mayotte, told AFP.
“These hospitals, these dispensaries, no longer belong to us, they are saturated and we are obliged, we Mahorais, to go for treatment in Reunion”, declared to AFP Safina Soula, the president of the collective of the citizens of Mayotte 2018.
The members of his group are determined to prevent consultations in health centers until the ship which provides the crossings between Mayotte and the Comoros has resumed service.
Postponed external consultations
Since last Wednesday, local collectives have also blocked the departure of the ferry which provides trips to Anjouan. “He is only carrying medicine and food, it is out of the question for him to leave without migrants,” said Safina Soula.
At the hospital, most outpatient visits have been postponed until next week. In an information note, obtained by AFP, the management asks caregivers not to come into contact with the collective, nor with the press. The prefecture did not respond to requests from AFP.
Since the end of April, the French authorities have deployed significant resources to dislodge illegal migrants from the slums of Mayotte as part of the vast operation “Wuambushu” (“recovery” in Mayotte). Some 1,800 police and gendarmes are mobilized.
Comorians in an irregular situation, the vast majority of undocumented migrants present in the French archipelago in the Indian Ocean, must be sent back to the nearest Comorian island, Anjouan, just 70 km away.
The Comorian port authorities had announced on April 27 that boats from Mayotte were once again authorized to dock, but that only Comorians with their national identity card could disembark.
On the same day, the shipping company providing the link between the French department of Mayotte and the Comoros announced “suspending rotations until further notice”.
