‘People Will Show Their Anger’ Fear of Violence After Corsican Nationalist Dies as a Result of Jihadist Attack

People light candles on the stairs of Ajaccio's Cathedrale in Ajaccio on the French M
PASCAL POCHARD-CASABIANCA/AFP via Getty Images
Chris Tomlinson

French President Emmanuel Macron and others have called for calm following the death of Corsican nationalist Yvan Colonna, who was viciously attacked by a convicted Jihadi terrorist three weeks ago, leading to riots across Corsica.

Colonna, 61, died in a hospital in Marseille on Monday, three weeks after being attacked in prison and rendered brain dead by veteran Jihadist Franck Elong Abé, who later claimed that Colonna had made disparaging comments about Islam and the prophet Mohammed.

“The most important thing is that the calm is maintained, that talks continue,” President Macron told French media on Tuesday, according to a report from Reuters.

In the French controlled island of Corsica, meanwhile, tensions are said to be high, with locals claiming that once the mourning of the nationalist ends, they expect violence will likely break out across the island.

“At some point, the Corsican people will show their anger,” 41-year-old Corsican Gérôme Bouda told the newspaper Le Devoir this week.

“Corsica is going through an identity crisis, and with Yvan Colonna, it has found its incarnation, its martyrdom,” 60-year-old Dominique told the paper, adding: “I fear, I fear that after the mourning, it breaks out.”

Michel Castellani, a Corsican nationalist deputy, maintained that if Colonna had been allowed to be moved to a prison in Corsica, rather than kept on the French mainland, the attack would never have happened.

Many Corsicans have blamed the French state for the attack on Colonna as France kept him and other Corsican nationalists under a special prisoner status that prevented them from being moved back to the island.

In an effort to defuse tensions, the French government later promised to revoke the special status and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin went as far as saying France was open to the discussion of autonomy for Corsica for the first time.

Darmanin’s statements came after several nights of riotings in various areas of Corsica following the initial attack on Colonna, one of which saw 67 people injured as a result of clashes between rioters and police, with 44 of the injured being police officers.

Yvan Colonna was sentenced to life in prison for his part in the assassination of French prefect Claude Erignac in 1998.

Colonna was not arrested for the murder until 2003, when he was subjected to the largest manhunt in French history and was found in the rural mountains of Corsica, in a traditional stone hut living as a shepherd.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.

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