Mayotte, the Comoros and France: what solutions?

In Mayotte, France and the Comoros clash diplomatically. While Paris wants to expel Comorians, the archipelago continues to claim its sovereignty over the island.

In recent days, the Wuanbushu operations, launched by France in Mayotte, have brought to light an anomaly: that of the status of Mayotte. On the one hand, there are the facts. The archipelago, located in the Mozambique Channel and in the Indian Ocean, is a French DROM (overseas department and region). For Europe, it is an outermost region. On the other hand, there is a political aspect: the Comoros indeed claim their sovereignty over Mayotte. And the African archipelago has arguments to make.

Comoros-France, a story of falling out of love

Indeed, 1976 was a special year. Two years earlier, the Comorians had voted in a referendum in favor of independence. And as the Mahorais had, overall, voted against, France had decided to organize a referendum exclusively in Mayotte. But that year, the French way of doing things was denounced by international institutions, in particular the United Nations, which had, in a resolution, “vigorously” asked France to “withdraw immediately” from Mayotte.

Because one of the principles of international law is that, in the event of decolonization, the colonizing power must not touch the borders of the decolonized country. The principle of the intangibility of borders, called utipossidetis, which had been retained by the Organization of African Unity when it was created in 1963, at the time of decolonization, was not respected in the case of the Comoros. But for Paris, another point of international law was a priority: the right of peoples to self-determination. France has also continued to ensure that the island had been purchased in 1841. The rest of the archipelago was then a protectorate and not a colony.

So, inevitably, the launch of Wuanbushu by France does not pass on the side of the Comoros. The principle of the operation is simple: dislodge irregular migrants from the unsanitary slums of Mayotte. In Mayotte, according to statistics, one in two inhabitants is not of French nationality.

But what can the Comoros do? Currently, the president of the archipelago, Azali Assoumani, is president of the African Union. This one knows that he will be able to count on his organization which, in 2009, had denounced, once again, the illegality of the French presence in Mayotte. The controversy surrounding the Wuanbushu operations revives the debate.

Mayotte, strategic for France

But why is France so attached to its island, geographically African, but plunged into a major economic and social crisis? “The misfortune of the Comoros is to be located in a highly strategic place. Not only do two-thirds of oil tankers from the Middle East circulate in the waters of the Mozambique Channel, but the positioning of the archipelago allows its guardian country to have a grip on the entire western Indian Ocean” , sums up the specialist in the region, Pierre Caminade, who recalls that France wanted to keep part of the archipelago at the time of decolonization, "with the project of setting up a naval military base there with a deep-water port. . This project will not see the light of day, but will be compensated by the establishment of a listening station for the French satellite network of communications espionage, commissioned in 2000”.

Since the departure of France, the Comoros have not ceased to be the scene of French negotiations. O remembers the intervention of the French mercenary Bob Dénard, in September 1975, came to consolidate Ali Soilih's coup and arrest President Ahmed Abdallah, who accused Paris of violating the rules of international law, when separating Mayotte from the Comoros.

Illegal evictions

Four decades later, it is still the legal vagueness around Mayotte. The UN no longer strongly condemns the French attitude. If French sovereignty over Mayotte is becoming more and more undue, the Comoros have constantly condemned the departmentalization of Mayotte in 2011 by France, but also the status of outermost region given by the EU to the island.

If the Comoros have signed economic, legal and customs agreements with France, which concern Mayotte, this means in half words that Moroni has accepted the situation. But for all that, the international community remains far from the file, preferring to kick in touch. But the launch of French operations in Mayotte, which displease the Comoros, could put an end to the dialogue between Paris and Moroni.

Already in 2004, Pierre Caminade estimated that the French State, with its escorts to the border, was committing "'forced population transfers' within the meaning of the statutes of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which fall under the Crime against humanity ". But the French Minister of the Interior is deaf to the calls launched by NGOs and civil society, which demand an end to the expulsions, which they consider illegal.