Since 2019, it has increased its means of opposing unauthorized immigration on the island, in particular through the continuous sea presence of interceptor boats and through aerial surveillance.

[10] Mayotte is faced with "extraordinary delinquency", as indicated by INSEE in 2021, noting in particular a three times higher rate of theft and use of violence or threats than in France.

[15] Approved in February by the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron and orchestrated by Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior and Overseas Territories, this large-scale operation aims to dislodge a majority of irregular migrants from neighboring Comoros, and to demolish many sheet metal huts exposed to natural hazards.

[18] A total of 1,800 police and gendarmes were mobilized for the military operation, which Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin stated as "an unprecedented device in the history of the Republic".

[24] The police were also called upon during the day to remove a roadblock made up of tree logs in Tsingoni, located on the west coast of Mayotte.

[26] The boat Maria Galanta, carrying several travelers and illegal immigrants, reached the Comorian island of Andjuan was turned back by the Comorian authorities [27] as the commander of the port of Mutsamudu invoked a closure of the port "for works" [28] The prefect of Mayotte, Thierry Suquet instructed “to take note of this decision” and hoped to resume rotations.

[34] Clashes broke out during the day until late at night, between the police and gangs, who blocked the main axis of the commune of Koungou, using improvised barricades.

[40] On the morning ofApril 26, the gendarmes supported by the intervention platoon of the Republican Guard arrested two attackers involved in the events of the day before.

[47] In the morning, the prefect of Mayotte, Thierry Suquet, went to the village of Longoni, where the destruction of a “small shanty town” had taken place, to allow the construction of a high school .

[48] At the call of the collective of women leaders, a large demonstration with nearly 1,000 participants took place in Chirongui, in support of Operation Wuambushu.

Even though many illegal Comorians in Mayotte voluntarily get rid of their identity cards, to avoid expulsion or pass themselves off as minors.

[53] On May 11, several Mahorais collectives had blocked access to various health centers, where a large illegal migrant population comes to seek treatment [54] On May 12, the peripheral hospital of Dzoumogné was attacked by around fifteen individuals dressed in white coats, armed with machetes and iron bars, to do battle with the collectives blocking access to care.

[58] On May 23, following the announcement by Jean-François Carenco (Minister Delegate for Overseas Territories) that “Operation Wuambushu could end within two or three months with a return to mainland police and gendarmes dispatched", several elected officials from Mahor expressed in a column in Le Monde their concern about this "admission of helplessness and an unforgivable abandonment of Mayotte", adding "We cannot accept this shameful outcome, this waste".

[58] On June 9, the administrative justice system in Mayotte rejected the appeal filed by a family from the Barakani neighborhood in Koungou who opposed the evacuation and destruction of the shantytown where they live.

[61] On September 11, 2023, Gérald Darmanin announced the end of the operation and the destruction of 400 housing units in the slums (out of an initial objective of 1,000), “1,327 arrests, including almost all of the gang leaders who had been identified (55 out of 59)” and a reduction in violence against people by 10%.

[74] Madi Madi Souf, mayor of Pamandzi and president of the Association of Mayors of Mayotte, declared his “total support for the operation to reconquer our territory" [75] Mikidadi Abdullah, spokesperson for La France Insoumise in Mayotte, distances himself from the position of the LFI-NUPES parliamentary group, firmly opposed to the operation.

[76] In a forum, 170 health personnel on the island recalled "the dramatic consequences" of previous large-scale interventions in the fight against immigration, referring in particular to the "generation of situations at risk of epidemic infection", the "limitation of access to care" or even "delays in treatment" for certain pathologies that they would have caused.

The association supporting exiles in France, Utopia 56, spoke of a "raid of an unprecedented scale in order to saturate justice and thus circumvent the rule of law to deport with a vengeance [...], the beginnings of 'a filthy communication operation'.

[81] The LFI-NUPES parliamentary group opposed Operation Wuambushu, and stated in a press release that: “attacking migrants, the precarious and the vulnerable as the government does is inhumane, cruel and the sign of a great political weakness”.