More than a thousand people gathered this Thursday, five days after the death of mantero Mamouth Bakhoum in the Guadalquivir, when two local police officers were chasing him for carrying 34 fake brand sports shirts for sale, and in the Plaza de la Gavidia – in front of the Department of Justice of the Junta de Andalucía – demanded an independent and transparent investigation of the circumstances of the death as well as the regularization of immigrants and the change in immigration laws. Foreigners who, according to what they stated, are a breeding ground for tragedies like this.
The Senegalese and African community in Seville has mobilized decisively since the death of their compatriot on Sunday, December 29. First, they held an improvised demonstration on Monday with 200 participants – that is, 30% of the 737 who live in the city; in the province there are, according to the 2022 census, about 1,018. In parallel, they have raised the amount for the repatriation of the body plus some 4,500 euros in solidarity aid for the widow and her orphan who is just over a year old. And this Thursday, in the center of Seville crowded with Christmas shopping, they staged a large rally with the support of other groups of Africans, Afro-descendants and racialized people, entities defending migrants and human rights and local and international citizens.
All united by doubts about the version of the Local Police that made its way in the first hours. And because of the certainty, as participants in the event said yesterday and attendees chanted, that European and Spanish migration policies, after putting the lives of those who migrate at risk by preventing them from doing so through legal and safe means, subject the survivors to a clandestinity and harassment, to an “institutional racism” that, without prejudice to the possible responsibilities of the agents involved, is the underlying cause of deaths like that of this 43-year-old Senegalese man.
“Justice for Mamouth!” was the most repeated cry in the rally that began and ended with religious chants from the Safinatoul Amane community to which he belonged. But closely followed by: “The Immigration Law kills every day!”
Babacar Gueye, a friend and fellow mantero of Mamouth Bakhoum, argued this to sevillaelDiario.es: “The police version that he ran a mile and a half and jumped into the water voluntarily is incredible because having the papers in order, with a wife and a young daughter, with elderly parents in his care, without knowing how to swim, a sensible and hard-working man like Mamouth would not have committed that irresponsibility. But, also,” he adds, “we know the problems that the Police create for us.”
Declaration of the Senegalese of Seville
“The Mamouth case crosses all limits but we must denounce,” Saliou Ndiaye, new president of the Association of Senegalese of Seville and General Secretary of the Association of Manteros of Seville, declares to this newspaper, “that street vendors flee at all costs from the police because they suffer daily harassment and even attacks that people would not believe.”
Those in charge of reading the official statement of the Association of Senegalese Men and Women of Seville were the journalist Bineta Gaye who works in hospitality here, and El Hadji Medoune, a geographer who has won the ESA Andalusia award and now studies International Trade.
Saliou Ndiaye, president of the Association of Senegalese of Seville and General Secretary of the Association of Manteros of Seville, denounces that “street vendors flee at all costs from the police because they suffer daily harassment and even attacks that people would not believe.
In this statement, in addition to expressing themselves “with a broken heart over Mamouth’s death,” they demanded “an independent judicial investigation” that takes into account “witnesses, images from cell phones and security cameras, autopsy data, interrogation of the agents involved, fellow manteros and firefighters who removed his body from the river.” And they linked this death to “current immigration laws and policies in Europe and Spain” that “instead of protecting and supporting those seeking refuge and opportunities, perpetuate vulnerability and suffering.”
Thus, the death of Mamouth Bakhoum comes as the last link in a chain that in the last five years has claimed five other Senegalese victims who were remembered by El Hadji Medoune: Mor Sylla (in Salou, 2015), Amadou Wade (in Murcia, 2016), Elhadji Ndiaye (in Pamplona, 2016) and Mame Mbaye Ndiaye and Ousseynou Mbaye (in Madrid, 2018).
For this reason, the conveners asked “the governments of Europe and Spain” to reform their immigration laws so that they respect human rights, guarantee education, health, employment, non-discrimination, integration and respect for the culture and aspirations of immigrants.
The final call was in favor of the “solidarity union of democratic citizens and defenders of human rights.” “Together we are stronger!” cried El Hadji Medoune, evoking the memory of Mamouth Bakhoum to build, “with determination and hope”, a future “where migration is seen as an opportunity and not a threat.”
Treinta human rights collectives
Entities like Black Seville, The Carp and the We are Migrants Platformwhich has brought together 30 groups from the province of Seville for 15 years, participated in the rally. On behalf of La Carpa, Alfonso Romera announced the intention of these thirty groups to launch, together with the Senegalese associations, an appeal to the Prosecutor’s Office or a judicial lawsuit to clarify the death of Mamouth Bakhoum. Guinean Hassan Sall, from Sevilla Negra, appealed to the Ombudsman and the Prosecutor’s Office to clarify the circumstances of the death and described “the mayor of Seville, José Luis Sanz, as the person ultimately politically responsible for what happened.”
While Mariví, from Somos Migrantes, demanded that “the video of the death, not the one they have spread about the rescue of the body” (images that arouse suspicion among those gathered because the torso of the deceased is only covered by his undershirt). “Our support is total in the face of institutional and police violence suffered by immigrants,” Manuel Martínez from Somos Migrantes reiterated to sevillaElDiario.es.
Support from Podemos and Adelante Andalucía
Serigne Mbayé, head of the Podemos Anti-Racism Secretariat, traveled from Madrid to Seville, who aroused great applause by proclaiming that “a fascist bias leads us to this life” and that “we must tell the ‘garbage press’ that enough of this is enough.” criminalize migrants,” that “black people are not going to disappear, in fact we are not going to stop until we are finally treated as equals.”
Already in statements to sevillaelDiario.es, he demanded that Mamouth’s death not remain in doubt as so many before and that “the ILP #RegularizaciónYa be approved once and for all for 500,000 people, an ILP that is “in the process of dying in Congress” because ” “The Government, cowardly, does not stand up to the right and does not dare to regularize.”
“A fascist bias leads to the life of manteros” and “to avoid their deaths, it is urgent to approve the ILP of #RegularizationNow for 500,000 people, which the government is letting die in Congress out of cowardice in the face of the right.”
Serigne Mbayé
— Podemos Secretary of Anti-Racism
In Mbayé’s opinion, “there is an institutional responsibility” for European and Spanish policies, which “devote themselves to persecuting those who sell” counterfeit products, which “is not committing a crime, but rather committing a mere administrative offense.” Mbayé warns that this persecution effort puts the lives of immigrants at risk, “but also children, the elderly, pregnant women” and other passers-by that the Police can overwhelm “in their desire to protect capitalism over the lives of the people.” .
Faced with this, it demands that the Administrations support sales initiatives in stores such as those of the Mantero Unions of Madrid and Barcelona. “I wish they would pursue the businessmen who exploit migrant day laborers with such determination.”
Jose Ignacio García, spokesperson in the Andalusian Parliament for Adelante Andalucía, was also at the rally, although he did not intervene. He described the case as “racist police repression”, demanded an investigation, the trial of the guilty, and the repeal of the immigration law. and the closure of the CIEs and announced upcoming initiatives in Parliament on the subject.
Consular support and Senegalese associations in Spain
Shortly before the rally in Seville, the Consul General of Senegal in Spain, Mamadou Moustapha Loum, sent the president of the Association of Senegalese of Seville for Solidarity, Demba Mboup, a letter in which, along with his condolences, he communicated “that “The Senegalese authorities have already demanded that light be shed on the circumstances of this drama” and to do so “the consulate has already contacted Court No. 15 of Seville, in charge of the investigation.”
The Consul General of Senegal in Spain, Mamadou Moustapha Loum, has informed the Senegalese community in Seville that they have already contacted Court No. 15 of Seville, in charge of the investigation, to demand that they shed light on the death. by Mamouth Bakhoum.
For his part, Ndiawar Seck, president of the group of Senegalese associations in Spain Aar sunu Diaspora (“Take care of our diaspora” in Wolof) told this newspaper that “collective actions are being prepared at the national level” and that, in fact, he hopes a decisive role of the consular authorities dependent on the current Sebegal authorities with President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, both of until April 2024 opposition party PASTEF.
“The diaspora has been key to their victory. He has supported, guided and protected them with much sacrifice. In the General Political Declaration of December 27, Sonko spoke of defending the diaspora, just as President Faye did in his declaration of the 31st. Cases such as that of Mamouth Bakhoum in Seville are the opportunity to demonstrate how much truth there is behind those words, because the Diaspora we are already contributing more to the Senegalese economy than international development cooperation, so we are a pillar to be taken into account.”
Furthermore, Abdou Mawa Ndiaye, president of the Coordinator of Senegalese Associations of Catalonia (CASC)the community where, according to the 2022 census, 25,000 of the 79,000 Senegalese residents in Spain live (that is, 31%), declared that they are also preparing a statement of support for their compatriots in Seville that, in summary, will contain his conviction that “every step must be taken to clarify Mamouth’s death” and firmly reject “any police persecution that has fatal effects on people, all the more so” -he emphasizes- “when what is being pursued are sales that are not crimes but mere administrative offenses.”
#thousand #protesters #death #Mamouth #Bakhoum #point #institutions #responsibility
