Why are people protesting in France – and why is there a history of rioting?

Published

2 years ago

June 29, 2023

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Riots have broken out in Paris and other French cities after a teenage boy was shot dead by police during a traffic stop.

Thousands of officers have been deployed and more than 100 people have been arrested as protesters clash with riot police.

President Emmanuel Macron has held an emergency security meeting to ensure “peace can return”, while French stars such as footballer Kylian Mbappe and actor Omar Sy have condemned police brutality.

Here Sky News looks at what happened and why the suburbs of French cities have a history of rioting.

France stops public transport and deploys 40,000 officers

What happened in Nanterre?

On Tuesday reports emerged of a police shooting in Nanterre – just over four miles north west of Paris.

Video footage, which has since been widely circulated online, shows two armed police officers stopping a yellow car.

They lean into the driver’s window with their guns before the vehicle pulls away and one of the officers fires towards it. A separate clip shows the car crashed into a post nearby.

The Nanterre prosecutor’s office confirmed the victim was a 17-year-old boy, who has been named locally as Nahel M.

He died at the scene and the officer involved is being held in custody on suspicion of voluntary homicide, they said.

His mother appeared in a video on Instagram alongside an anti-police brutality activist, saying: “I have lost a child of 17 years old. They took my baby. He was still a child. He needs his mother.

“This morning, he said: ‘Mum, I love you’. I said: ‘Be careful’.”

In the aftermath, people took to the streets of Nanterre to protest, setting cars alight and throwing stones and fireworks at police – who responded with tear gas.

Buildings, including schools, town halls and the headquarters of the Paris 2024 Olympics in nearby Seine-Saint-Denis, were also set on fire.

The violence has spread to other Parisian suburbs (banlieues) and cities elsewhere in France – from Toulouse to Dijon and Lille.

Police say 150 people have been arrested – more than half in the greater Paris region.

So far 40,000 police officers have been deployed to tackle unrest nationwide – including 5,000 in Paris.

Why is there a history of rioting in France’s suburbs?

Asked about the incident during a visit to Marseille on Wednesday, Mr Macron was quick to condemn the police’s actions, describing them as “inexplicable and unforgivable”. “Nothing can justify the death of a young person,” he said.

As he tries to manage the violent aftermath of the boy’s death, he will be all too aware of the heavily-entrenched tensions that lie behind it.

Dr Itay Lotem, senior lecturer in French studies at the University of Westminster, describes this week’s events as “nearly well-rehearsed”.

“A police officer kills a teenager from one of the underprivileged communities around Paris, triggering ripples of anger,” he says.

“Groups of disaffected youth take to the streets of the banlieue and target symbols of the state, whether police stations or schools.”

Timeline of French suburban riots

1979: Regarded as the first French suburban riot in the Lyon suburb of Vaulx-en-Velin after a young person of North African descent was arrested.

1991: In March, a department store and cars were set alight in Sartrouville, north of Paris, after an Arab teenager was shot dead by a supermarket security guard.

In June the same year violence broke out again in nearby Mantes-la-Jolie after a 32-year-old policewoman was hit by a stolen car and killed. Police later shot dead Youssef Khaif, 23, who was driving another stolen car in the area.

1992: The police station in Lyon’s Vaulx-en-Velin suburb was set on fire after 18-year-old Mohamed Bahri was shot dead by police after the car he was in drove towards a police roadblock.

1995: Riots broke out in several of Lyon’s suburbs after police killed Algerian terrorist Khaled Kelkal – one of the orchestrators of the 1995 bombings in Paris and Lyon. TV footage showed police shouting “finish him” before they killed him.

1997: Rioting in Dammarie-les-Lys, southeast of Paris, after 16-year-old Abdelkadher Bouziane was shot and killed by police, who also injured his friend.

1998: Riots lasted for two days on the outskirts of Toulouse after Habib Muhammed, 17, was shot by police during a car theft.

2005: Three weeks of riots and a state of emergency in the suburbs of Paris and other cities after two teenagers were electrocuted as they tried to evade police.

2007: The death of two teenagers, 16 and 17, whose motorbike crashed with a police car sparked two days of rioting in Val-d’Oise, to the north of Paris.

2009: Riots took place on 9 July and again on 4 July (Bastille Day) in the eastern Parisian suburb of Montreuil after the death of Mohamed Benmouna, a young Algerian man, in police custody.

2013: Trappes near Paris experienced rioting after a Muslim man was arrested for assaulting a police officer who had tried to lift his wife’s veil following the ban on face coverings in 2010.

2016: The death of a black man, Adama Traore, in police custody after he was restrained triggered rioting in several French cities and a wider ‘Justice for Adama’ anti-racist movement.

2017: Riots lasted almost two weeks after Theo Luhaka was arrested and claimed he was racially abused and raped by police with a baton in Seine-Saint-Denis, north of Paris.

The origins of the ‘banlieue’ stem back to the years following the Second World War, when the French government began to provide social housing en masse. This resulted in thousands of tower blocks being built on the periphery of French cities between 1945 and 1975.

They were originally designed for lower-middle class families who commuted for work. But in the 1970s amid high unemployment and racial tensions following the Algerian War and the end of French colonialism, they became increasingly occupied by low-income, immigrant communities.

Underfunded by successive governments with poor quality housing and job prospects, they were labelled “problem” or “high-risk” areas.

Crime was high and young people on the streets would often clash with police, who had a reputation for a brutal, zero-tolerance policy of unrest.

‘Clean out the estates’

The first ‘banlieue’ riot was in 1979 in the Lyon suburb of Vaulx-en-Velin, which broke out after a local teenager of North African descent was arrested.

The most notable, however, came in 2005 and lasted for three weeks. It started in Clichy-sous-Bois, north of Paris, when two youths were electrocuted and died as they tried to evade police.

A state of emergency was declared after protesters burnt down buildings and set fire to cars.

Future President Nicolas Sarkozy, then interior minister, inflamed tensions by vowing to “clean out the estates with a Karcher” (a brand of pressure washer) and using the words “yobs” and “trash”.

These tensions “have only been amplified” by the far-right since then, Dr Lotem adds, particularly the National Front, which began achieving electoral success in the early 2000s.

The daughter of its founder, Marine Le Pen, who rebranded the party National Rally in 2018, has described Mr Macron’s condemnation of the police this week as “excessive” and “irresponsible”, saying he should “let them do their job”.

Although the 2005 violence sent shockwaves around the country and triggered a wave of reform programmes in the banlieues, repeated incidences of rioting suggest little has changed since then.

“When many rioters today claim they are not heard, they address 2005 as a moment after which nothing changed,” Dr Lotem says.

And for teenagers who do not remember 2005, “the frustration with the state has been nurtured through the politics of the post-2005 era”, he adds.

How is the government responding?

Leading an emergency security meeting on Thursday, Emmanuel Macron described this week’s “acts of violence… against a police station, schools, city halls” as “totally unjustifiable”.

But he insisted there must be “remembrance and respect” to the victim’s family and his community, particularly during the silent march that took place in Nanterre on Thursday.

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said police seen in the video circulated “clearly don’t respect the rules of engagement of our security forces” and she hopes “calm will prevail over anger”.

Initially, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin described the footage of the incident as “shocking”, but in response to the rioting he said: “The state must be firm in its response.”

Dr Lotem says that although politicians want to appear sympathetic, there is still widespread distrust among the communities involved.

“The main bone of contention is the perception of the state as the main facilitator of police violence,” he says.

He points to the 2017 law – passed in the aftermath of the 2015 terror attacks in Paris – which gives the police more rights to use lethal force in the face of perceived threats.

According to French journalist and researcher Sihame Assbague, at least 40 people die during police interventions in France every year.

A police spokesperson confirmed that this week’s shooting is the third fatal one during a traffic stop so far this year. Last year the figure was 13 – an all-time record.

World

Japan executes ‘Twitter killer’ who murdered and dismembered nine people

Published

5 hours ago

June 27, 2025

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Japan executes 'Twitter killer' who murdered and dismembered nine people

A man guilty of murdering nine people, most of whom had posted suicidal thoughts on social media, has been executed in Japan.

Takahiro Shiraishi, known as the “Twitter killer”, was sentenced to death in 2020 for the 2017 killings of the nine victims, who he also dismembered in his apartment near Tokyo.

His execution was the first use of capital punishment in the country in nearly three years and it was carried out as calls grow to abolish the measure in Japan since the acquittal of the world’s longest-serving death-row inmate Iwao Hakamada last year.

He was freed after 56 years on death row, following a retrial which heard police had falsified and planted evidence against him over the 1966 murders of his boss, wife and two children.

Eight of Shiraishi’s victims were women, including teenagers, who he killed after raping them. He also killed a boyfriend of one of the women to silence him.

Police arrested him in 2017 after finding the bodies of eight females and one male in cold-storage cases in his apartment.

Investigators said Shiraishi approached the victims via Twitter, offering to assist them with their suicidal wishes.

Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki, who authorised Shiraishi’s hanging, said he made the decision after careful examination, taking into account the convict’s “extremely selfish” motive for crimes that “caused great shock and unrest to society”.

“It is not appropriate to abolish the death penalty while these violent crimes are still being committed,” Mr Suzuki said.

There are currently 105 death row inmates in Japan, he added.

World

EU warns Europe must start building ‘millions of drones’ to defend itself against possible Russian attacks

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1 day ago

June 26, 2025

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EU warns Europe must start building 'millions of drones' to defend itself against possible Russian attacks

The EU’s defence commissioner has warned Europe must be capable of building a drone army in case Russia attacks.

Military intelligence has suggested Russian forces could be ready to strike a NATO country within the next five years.

In order to defend themselves, Andrius Kubilius says Europeans will require millions of drones and need to start preparing now.

“Russia can have around five million drones, so we need to have capacities bigger than those in order to prevail,” he told Sky News, warning that if President Putin ordered an attack, the target would face a “battle-tested” Russian army with the ability to use millions of drones”.

The 2022 invasion of Ukraine sparked a revolution in drone warfare.

Facing one of the world’s strongest militaries, the Ukrainians used the cheap, adaptable technology to their advantage.

It estimates its drone units are now responsible for 80% of Russian frontline losses.

Mr Kubilius has visited Ukraine to learn the lessons from the battlefield.

Along the 1200km (745 miles) front line is an area nicknamed “Death Valley”.

“Nothing can move. Everything is controlled by drones. A traditional tank in that zone survives six minutes,” he explained.

This year, Ukraine’s expected to produce more than four million drones.

Contemplating how many units other countries would need, the commissioner used the example of his home country of Lithuania.

The former Soviet republic shares a border of around 900km (559 miles) with Russia and Belarus.

“If Ukrainians need four million for 1200km, we need something like three million drones for one year if the war is starting, if ‘Day X’ is coming,” he said.

To try to stay ahead in the fight, both Russia and Ukraine are constantly updating their drone technology.

For this reason, the commissioner believes that rather than stockpiling drones now, which will go out of date, Europe should instead build up teams of pilots, engineers, and producers ready to scale up production should the time come.

“On the European continent, at the moment, there are only two armies battle-tested with the ability to use millions of drones: one is Russian, which is planning new aggressions; another one is Ukrainian,” said Mr Kubilius.

“We need to learn a lot from Ukraine… how to organise defences against millions of drones, and also how to make your defence industry innovative,” he added.

It’s a point many in the business agree with.

German start-up STARK has been testing loitering munitions or “attack drones” ready to supply to Kyiv.

“It’s all made for easy handling for soldiers, so you don’t have to use any tools on the front line, and you just plug in the rudders,” said STARK’s senior vice president, Josef Kranawetvogl, as he quickly clicked the unit’s tail together.

He spent 18 years in the German military before making the jump to weapons production.

He says staying ahead of the enemy requires tactics and technology to be frequently updated.

“Every day you have to adapt. You have such fast development cycles in Ukraine – two or three weeks, then there’s something new upcoming and you have to be prepared for this.”

Since the start of June, Russia has repeatedly used drone swarms to attack Ukraine.

It involves hundreds of drones hammering cities in one night.

I asked Josef whether he believes NATO’s European members are ready to defend against such an attack.

“I see quite a lot of European armies starting right now to develop or to purchase unmanned systems, and it’s a good development, but it’s all about time. How can we speed up?” he replied.

Close to the border with France, another German start-up, Alpine Eagle, is testing defence drone units for Ukraine.

“This is our interceptor drone,” explained the company’s CEO, Jan-Hendrik Boelens, holding up a prototype which looks a bit like a small black plane. The interceptor is carried underneath a large grey drone.

On-board radar means it can be fired at enemy drones up to 5km (3 miles) away.

Jan thinks that could be a game changer in an aerial battle as it means hostile units could be picked off before they get close.

And he believes NATO is unprepared if one of its countries was to be hit by a wave of drones like those in Ukraine.

“We are absolutely not ready in my view,” he said.

He explained that Ukraine produced around 1.3 million drones a year last year.

“I would be surprised if NATO even bought a thousand drones last year. I think Germany procured, I don’t know, 100, maybe 200. So now you do the math on what that means and how quickly you run out of drones.

“If Ukraine consumed 1.3 million drones per year, that’s 3,000 a day. So, if you have 100 in your inventory, that would not last an hour.”

A spokesperson from the German Defence Ministry said the numbers stated “do not closely reflect reality”.

“Drones are now part of everyday life for soldiers, they are omnipresent and are used extensively in service operations and training,” they added.

Drones are a key part of NATO’s defence plan.

The alliance’s leadership has repeatedly said producing, procuring, and protecting against drones is a priority.

At the NATO summit, members agreed to boost defence spending to 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2035.

In addition to increasing training and development, NATO Chief Mark Rutte has said he wants more investment in drone technology as well as boosting air defences fivefold.

“We see Russia’s deadly terror from the skies over Ukraine every day, and we must be able to defend ourselves from such attacks,” he told an audience at the summit.

Lessons from Ukraine have prompted members to embrace unmanned technology in various ways.

Britain is one of the countries pledging to put drones front and centre of its new defence plan.

Earlier this month, the government’s Strategic Defence Review outlined a new way forward for British Army warfighting based around a drone-centric 20-40-40 strategy where uncrewed systems are deployed for first wave attacks, before tanks, attack helicopters and other manned platforms arrive on the battlefield.

In essence, the new weapons mix would be 20% traditional heavy platforms (like tanks), 40% single-use expendable drones and munitions, and the remaining 40% reusable, high-end drones.

It’s been confirmed that an extra £2bn will be spent on army drones this parliament.

Defence Secretary John Healey said Britain’s adversaries were working more in alliance and technology was changing how war was fought.

“Drones now kill more people than traditional artillery in the war in Ukraine and whoever gets new technology into the hands of their armed forces the quickest will win,” he said.

This week, the prime minister announced a deal with Ukraine to co-produce drones.

Germany and Denmark have made similar agreements with the German Ministry of Defence, telling Sky News that drones are a top priority.

In a drone showroom in central Berlin, we meet Sven Weizenegger, head of the German military’s cyber innovation hub.

He said they have noticed a boom in pitches from potential suppliers.

Every day, his department receives up to 20 enquiries from companies asking how their products could be used by the military.

He believes things need to move more quickly so soldiers get weapons faster.

“We are very advanced in the innovation process. That means we have a lot of ideas and many companies that are ready to deliver,” he explained. “Unfortunately, what we are not good at right now, due to our current processes, is getting these things into real operations, into frontline use. We need to fix that.”

Germany has promised to turbo-charge defence spending, with the Chancellor pledging to create the “strongest conventional army in Europe”.

Plans announced this week include boosting unmanned systems and air defences.

The German Ministry of Defence said it couldn’t reveal stock levels due to security, but a spokesperson confirmed the country is investing in a range of different units, including signing two contracts for attack drones.

“We are procuring not just a few but quite large quantities and testing them directly with the troops,” the spokesperson added.

However, they agreed with the EU defence commissioner that rather than stockpiling tech which would go out of date, it was better to have a system in place to allow for large quantities to be made quickly in the event of war.

In May, the EU approved a €150bn (£125bn) loan scheme to boost defence production across the bloc.

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Why hastily declared ceasefires tend to be fragile

Published

3 days ago

June 24, 2025

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Why hastily declared ceasefires tend to be fragile

Ceasefires that are suddenly declared tend to be pretty fragile.

Stable ceasefires usually require a lot of preparation so that everyone on both sides knows what is supposed to happen, and – more importantly – when.

And they normally agree on how it will be monitored so one side cannot seize a quick advantage by breaking it suddenly.

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Without such preparations, and sometimes even with them, ceasefires will tend to be breached – perhaps by accident, perhaps because one side does not exercise full control over its own forces, perhaps as a result of false alarms, or even because a third party – a guerrilla group or a militia, say – choose that moment to launch an attack of their own.

The important question is whether a ceasefire breach is just random and unfortunate, or else deliberate and systemic – where someone is actively trying to break it.

Either way, ceasefires have to be politically reinforced all the time if they are to hold.

All sides may need to rededicate themselves to it at regular intervals, mainly because, as genuine enemies, they won’t trust each other and will remain naturally suspicious at every twitch and utterance from the other side.

This is where an external power like the United States plays a critical part.

If enemies like Israel and Iran naturally distrust each other and need little incentive to “hit back” in some way at every provocation, it will take US pressure to make them abide by a ceasefire that may be breaking down.

Appeals to good nature are hardly relevant in this respect. An external arbiter has to make the continuance of a ceasefire a matter of hard national interest to both sides.

And that often requires as much bullying as persuasion. It may be true that “blessed are the peacemakers”.