French authorities on Thursday razed an informal settlement on the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte after overnight unrest sparked by government plans to clear slums and send illegal migrants back to the neighbouring Comoros.
Operation Wuambushu ("Take Back" in the local language, Mahoran) recently sparked clashes between youths and security forces on the French island and fuelled political tensions with the neighbouring Comoros.
Two mechanical diggers on Thursday morning demolished the shanties in the Longoni neighbourhood on the north of the island in less than an hour, reporters for the AFP news agency at the scene said.
The French government representative in Mayotte, Thierry Suquet, said the "small slum" was being cleared after a December court order to make way for a vocational training institute.
He told reporters that the settlement, which had once housed around 10 families, no longer had permanent inhabitants, and alternative housing had been offered to those using it as a temporary shelter.
But 32-year-old Zarianti Bina told AFP the sudden demolition had come as a surprise.
"My mother lives here," she said. "I only learnt they were coming yesterday. We have been contesting this for a year, but we got no prior warning."
"No solution has been provided," she claimed.
An effort to end insecurity, improve conditions
Thierry Suquet said there was further violence overnight in the town of Mamoudzou, where police arrested one person after youths tried to set fire to "vehicles and buildings".
Some 1,800 members of the French security forces, including hundreds of reinforcements sent from Paris, have been deployed for Operation Wuambushu, which aims to improve living conditions and end insecurity for Mayotte locals.
The start of the operation was delayed when a court in Mamoudzou ordered a last-minute halt to the clearance last Tuesday of a much larger slum in Koungou called Talus 2. That court decision is now being appealed.
The operation also faces opposition from the Comoros, whose three islands lie to the northwest of Mayotte.
The Comorian authorities are refusing to accept people deported from Mayotte, saying the impoverished archipelago cannot cope with the influx.
On Monday, the Comoros suspended docking authorisation for boats arriving from Mayotte. Expelled migrants are usually taken to the port of Mutsamudu on the island of Anjouan, 70 kilometres from the French island.
Around half of Mayotte's roughly 350,000 population is estimated to be foreign, mostly Comoran.
