New sabotages in France

Featured image: workers in Croiselles, northern France, repairing the railway network. Source:Denis CHARLET / AFP.

This Sunday another attack has been attempted against the railway network, on this occasion close to Rouen, Normandy, northern France. The suspect was detained before carrying out the action. The Ministry of Interior of France, labeled the youth as a “ultra-left” activist. This youth would had no relation with the sabotage action on which we recently reported. Since the first attack, the French State has deployed around 1,000 railway workers, 250 railway security agents, 50 drones and several police helicopters to try to monitor the whole French rail network. The communications by train has been reestablished with some ‘normalcy’ according to the French State, but it has been after mobilizing a huge amount of workers and after three days of intensive work. The economical damage is most likely valued in millions of euros.

But when it was thought that everything came back to normalcy and everything was under control, the French repressive forces have not been able to prevent a new big sabotage action. This occurred today during the dawn: there have been many successful sabotage actions which have targeted the cables of the SFR (Société française du radiotéléphone) network, the second biggest telecommunications company of France, after Orange. The responsible in charge of the Secretary of State on Digital Affairs, Marina Ferrari, has announced that the telecommunications installations have been attacked in many French departments.

The new attack is under a joint investigation by the Anti-Terrorism Direction (SDAT) of the judiciary police and the General Direction of the National Gendarmerie (DGGN). ARCEP (Autorité de Régulation des Communications Électroniques, des Postes et de la Distribution de la Presse), the French authority in charge of telecommunications, post and press distribution, has reported that at least five departments and 11,000 customers have been affected by this new sabotage.

Meanwhile, the French State shows its concern, and Darmanin states that the “attacks were intentional, very precise, extremely well targeted”.