The tragedy of Pissevin, a once model French housing scheme now ruled by drug gangs
The fatal shooting of a ten-year-old boy last month in Pissevin, a run-down, high-rise quarter on the outskirts of Nîmes in southern France, made national headlines and prompted the sending of riot police to the neighbourhood to contain the spiralling violence of drug traffickers engaged in turf wars. Two days later, an 18-year-old man was shot dead, after which France’s interior minister made a high-profile visit to the quarter, promising further reinforcements. But the sudden attention given to the dilapidated neighbourhood, built as a model public housing scheme in the early 1960s but where around 70% of the population now live below the poverty line, has done little to appease inhabitants, who complain of being abandoned for years in a crumbling environment. Prisca Borrel reports from Pissevin.
ItIt was over a period of less than a week that Pissevin, a run-down quarter of mostly social housing blocks on the outskirts of the town of Nîmes in southern France, became rocked by a series of shootings, beginning on August 20th with the wounding of a 14-year-old boy. That was followed the next day by the killing of ten-year-old Fayed, who was hit by a bullet as he and his uncle returned home by car from a visit to a local restaurant. Fayed’s uncle, who was also wounded in the attack, rushed the boy to hospital where he died shortly after.
