Faced with growing insecurity linked to drug trafficking, the University of Aix-Marseille has decided to temporarily close a site in the center of Marseille, leading the police headquarters to promise on Wednesday October 4 a strengthening of resources around the establishment.
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“ After months of concern and alert, the dean of the faculty of economics and management of the Colbert site in Marseille took the decision to close access to this building to students and staff, as he was unable to ensure their security », Wrote the president of Aix-Marseille University Eric Berton in a letter addressed to the prefect of the Bouches-du-Rhône department and to the police prefect, as well as to the prosecutor and the mayor of Marseille.
Classes will be taught remotely from Friday until October 13, which is worrying, with many students preferring face-to-face. “ For the staff, for the teachers, for our community, it is a question of denouncing the unsanitary and unsafe conditions around the faculty », Explained on Wednesday October 4 in front of the site, located near the Old Port, the dean of this faculty, Bruno Decreuse. “ We arrive at a radical decision when the feeling of discontent rises and things are not changing quickly enough », he estimated, specifying that 1,500 students, 170 teachers and dozens of administrative staff attend this branch of the University, located in Belsunce, a poor district in the center.
A few hundred meters away, a medical-psychological center was closed in July, already under pressure from the installation of drug dealers. And, for several days, a nearby municipal nursery has also been closed, again for fear of insecurity.
“ A huge waste”
The university decision led police chief Frédérique Camilleri to convene a meeting on Wednesday afternoon with representatives of the university and the city of Marseille, at the end of which she announced “ a permanent and reinforced police presence from today “, with “ also expanded patrols around this sector “.
“ There is no question that the public service will give in to these dealers » insisted the prefect. In another district of the city, police officers are deployed near an elementary school, also very close to a deal point. Same story with the Marseille town hall, whose deputy for security, Yannick Ohanessian, believes that it is “not never acceptable for us to see the slightest public service retreat in the face of violence. » The latter undertakes to do everything, in cooperation with state services, so that the crèche near the Colbert university center can also “ quickly reopen its doors in the best possible safety conditions. »
A port city marked by strong inequalities, Marseille has been affected by drug trafficking for decades. But the level of violence for the control of points of sale of narcotics is on the rise, as in other cities in France. More than forty people have been killed this year in the city in turf wars between traffickers, with the prosecutor evoking a “ bloodbath “.
Last week, several homes were hit, without causing any injuries, when a commando opened fire in the middle of the street in the early evening on a group of three men, killing two. On September 11, a young 24-year-old student was killed in her home by a stray bullet.
(With AFP)
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