April 28, 2026
Exclusive footage sheds new light on dangerous tactics used by French border police in the overseas territory of Mayotte to stop kwassas, small boats carrying immigrants from nearby Comoros
On 20 February 2026, a Mayotte-bound kwassa carrying 20 people, including seven women and three young children, capsized during a police interception. The passengers narrowly avoided death. One four-year old child was severely injured.
In an official statement, Mayotte’s police claimed the small boat’s pilots had “deliberately rammed” the police vessel. The two kwassa pilots were sentenced to three years in prison.
But a video and police testimony obtained by Lighthouse Reports, Der Spiegel, Le Monde and Komune raise serious doubts about the official account.
The 30-second segment, filmed by a police officer, shows their boat closing in until it is directly alongside the kwassa. A passenger appears to throw a stone. An officer then uses a hooked pole to try to tear away a fuel line from one of the engines. At that exact moment, one of the two pilots (wearing a red shirt in the video) is seen releasing the helm.
The kwassa abruptly loses speed, spins and slides under the police boat. A flashlight beam cuts through the darkness. Passengers are already in the water as the vessel goes down. An officer shouts: “Shit – overboard, overboard!”
During the investigation, a policeman said their use of the hook was what caused a pilot to let go of the helm: “I was approaching, and to avoid the hook, the helmsman who was on the right-hand side of the boat let go of the 75-horsepower engine, causing their boat to veer sharply towards us”, he said, “their boat started taking on water, the passengers panicked and all went to the same side, which caused the boat to capsize.”
An officer stated that while he was trying to rescue a four-year-old girl, a passenger used the girl for leverage to climb aboard and he saw her eyes ‘roll back.’ She was taken to hospital in a critical condition. Earlier this week, the prosecutor of Mayotte confirmed she was out of danger.
The incident is part of a broader pattern. In September 2025, we revealed that French authorities in Mayotte routinely used aggressive interception tactics such as collisions, encirclement and wave generation despite the absence of any formal doctrine permitting these practices. We found that multiple shipwrecks and at least 25 deaths, including one as recently as March, have resulted from these interceptions, highlighting the risks.
METHODS
We obtained and analysed previously unseen footage filmed by a police officer. We cross-checked the footage against judicial hearings including police accounts to identify inconsistencies. In parallel, we interviewed lawyers and survivors to gather accounts of the interceptions. We also spoke to experts and police officers who provided technical assessments of the tactics used at sea.
STORYLINES
A month after the incident visible on the video we obtained, on March 28, 2026, a similar interception took place. This time it ended with the death of a passenger.
Officers say the kwassa’s pilot refused to stop and endangered those on board. They describe attempting to stop the engine by disconnecting the fuel line. They claim the pilot then made a sharp 90-degree turn into their path, causing the collision. The small boat took on water and capsized.
Among those thrown into the sea were three children, including a nine-month-old baby, five women and a 73-year-old man. Twenty-four people were rescued. Hidaya B., a woman in her fifties from Anjouan in Comoros, suffered head injuries and could not be revived.
Survivors interviewed, now held in a detention centre in Mayotte, blame the police’s maneuvers. “The police capsized our boat,” said Farid S., who alleges the victim’s head was crushed by the interceptor’s engine.
“They overturned us,” said another passenger, Ahmed S., 21.
A third survivor, Anzidine M., described officers “hitting the pilot on the arms with metal poles” and crashing into the kwassa before “driving straight over it”, adding: “There was blood everywhere.” Eleven passengers have filed civil complaints, according to their lawyer, Céline Cooper.
Responding to our questions, the Prosecutor of Mayotte said an investigation had been opened against the smugglers for aggravated manslaughter and aggravated aiding and abetting of immigration.
The Police meanwhile declined to answer our questions, but five officers were decorated for their intervention on March 28th. “Faced with the absolute emergency of shipwreck victims unable to swim,” officials stated, “the crew members of the interceptor showed exemplary courage by immediately jumping in to assist the victims and deploying rescue equipment.”