Growing anger after Afghan killing of French boy

Published 30 April 2024 at 13.57

Foreign. The anti-immigration mood in France is further strengthened after an Afghan and his mother were arrested for the murder of a French boy.

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A 15-year-old French boy was stabbed to death at 6pm on Saturday evening in the commune of Chateauroux in central France.

At the scene, the boy – Matisse – was found lying in the street.

An Afghan of the same age and his 37-year-old mother has been arrested on suspicion of murder.

According to a police source quoted by TF1info, Matisse had been involved in a fight with the Afghan earlier in the day. The alleged perpetrator then went home before returning to the scene where Matisse and his friends were hanging out, armed with a knife.

French news site Fdesouche has reported on videos posted on the Afghan suspect's social media prior to the attack, and which appears to show him walking around the area brandishing a knife.

The Afghan allegedly stabbed Matisse several times with the knife, causing fatal injuries to the boy's heart and causing him to fall to the ground. The Afghan's mother, a 37-year-old woman, is said to have then struck Matisse several times with her bare hands as he lay on the ground bleeding.

The French teenager was rushed to hospital for treatment but died a few hours later.

The suspect was already on trial in February last year for grand theft but was not convicted of the crime. As recently as a week before the attack, he was brought before an investigating judge in Chateauroux on suspicion of the same type of crime.

“Francocide”
The murder has become the focus of France ongoing immigration debate and several high-profile politicians on the right have highlighted the incident as the latest in a long line of similar cases where French people are murdered by immigrants.

The National Assembly party leader, Jordan Bardella, says that Matisse became “another victims of a senseless migration policy that endangers the French people”.

“I urge you never to get used to the unacceptable”, continues Bardella.

Éric Zemmour, party leader of Reconquete, describes the murder as a part of a “francocide” (genocide of the French).