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The Israeli occupation targets Deir Keefa in South Lebanon with 2 surface-to-surface missiles
Philippe Lazzarini: The famine in Gaza is a direct result of banning food and other basic supplies for months including from UNRWA .
Philippe Lazzarini: The spread of famine can still be controlled by a ceasefire and allowing humanitarian organizations to do their work and reach starving people with aid.
The United Nations on the Israeli-induced famine in Gaza: The starvation of civilians for military objectives is a war crime.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini: famine is now confirmed in Gaza city. This is starvation by design and manmade by the Government of Israel.
More than 30 people have been martyred in Gaza since Friday dawn in Israeli bombardment targeting refugee camps throughout the blockaded strip.
Al Mayadeen correspondent: The Israeli occupation forces are carrying out demolitions of residential buildings in Gaza's al-Tuffah neighborhood amid intensifying airstrikes.
Israeli media: A man is critically wounded from a shooting near Malachi Hashalom between Ramallah and Nablus, and ambulance crews are on their way to the scene.
Al Mayadeen correspondent: One person was martyred in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a motorcycle in southern Lebanon's Deir Saryan.
Al Mayadeen's correspondent to Southern Lebanon: An Israeli drone strike on a motorcycle in the town of Deir Saryan left one civilian injured

France calls for calm after Corsican nationalist dies from prison assault

  • By Al Mayadeen net
  • Source: Agencies
  • 22 Mar 2022 14:58
3 Min Read

The Corsican nationalist Yvan Colonna was being held in a prison in southern France over the assassination of a senior French official in 1998.

  • x
  • Corsican nationalist dies from assault in prison
    Yvan Colonna in July 2003 (AFP)

The French government issued an appeal for calm on Tuesday, following the death of imprisoned Corsican nationalist Yvan Colonna, which prompted concerns of more bloodshed on the French Mediterranean island.

Colonna was allegedly attacked by a fellow inmate on March 2 in a prison in southern France where he was being held for the 1998 assassination of a senior French government official. Those who consider Colonna a hero of independence were outraged.

French government spokesperson Gabriel Attal told Europe 1 radio on Tuesday that a call for calm and dialogue is needed, adding that "everything will be done to shed light on events which led to this unacceptable situation."

A suspected "Islamic extremist" was responsible for the fatal blow after he left Colonna in a coma. An inquiry into the attack is underway.

Colonna's lawyer Patrice Spinosi told AFP on Monday that his family requests respect for its grief and will not be making any comments.

Colonna died in a hospital in Marseille, after the French judiciary suspended his sentence due to medical injuries on March 17.

Last Wednesday, Paris announced it might offer Corsica "autonomy" to ease tensions between the Mediterranean island's fervent independence movement and the French state, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin claimed.

President Emmanuel Macron stated that the matter should not be considered "taboo", but that there must be an end to the disturbance before a debate can take place.

Last Thursday, Macron said, "It is a debate that cannot take place until there is absolute calm."

Colonna was apprehended in 2003 following a five-year quest that led to his discovery as a shepherd in the Corsican Alps. He was later sentenced to life in jail for assassinating Corsica's senior provincial politician, Claude Erignac, in 1998.

Darmanin's remarks last week and subsequent visit to Corsica allegedly helped to defuse tensions, but it remains to be seen how nationalists respond to Colonna's death.

Colonna's supporters have long advocated for his release or, at the very least, his transfer from continental France to a Corsican jail out of fear for his health and life.

Gilles Simeoni, the leader of Corsica's pro-autonomy regional council, told AFP that Darmanin's proposals are "important words that open up prospects, but they ought now to be extended and firmed up."

The National Liberation Front of Corsica (FLNC), which laid down its arms in 2014, warned that if Paris remained in a state of "contemptuous denial", it could resume its fight.

Red lines

According to a memorandum agreed on by Darmanin and Simeoni, independence talks are scheduled for April and will be concluded by the end of 2022.

Attal highlighted the government's "red lines" on Tuesday — that "Corsica remains a part of the republic and the fact that we will never accept that there are two categories of people in the republic."

  • National Liberation Front of Corsica
  • Prison assault
  • Paris
  • France
  • Corsica

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