French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu traveled to Mayotte on August 26 and 27, flanked by six government ministers, to unveil a security and development package aimed at curbing irregular immigration and accelerating post-cyclone reconstruction across the archipelago.
The visit opened at the Dzaoudzi naval base, where Lecornu chaired an operational staff meeting dedicated to stopping clandestine migration routes originating primarily from neighboring Comoros and the Great Lakes region of Africa. During the meetings, the Prime Minister announced a ramp-up in military and technological surveillance assets designed to close existing blind spots along Mayotte’s maritime approaches.
Deploying Drones, Interceptor Boats, and the Foreign Legion
To secure the territory’s coastline, the French government will soon deploy unmanned drones, altitude detection balloons, and high-speed interceptor boats to patrol local waters. Furthermore, military troop levels on the ground will increase, highlighted by the deployment of Foreign Legion soldiers stationed on Mtsamboro islet, an uninhabited outcrop located near the Comoros.
While defending his administration’s ongoing record, Lecornu acknowledged that existing security measures face severe limitations against an adaptive adversary. He noted that smuggling networks routinely circumvent surveillance and interception techniques by exploiting local complicities.
Beyond direct security reinforcements, the Prime Minister introduced a diplomatic bonus-malus mechanism linking public development aid to migration cooperation. Under this system, nations that actively cooperate with France on border control will receive increased financial backing, while non-cooperative states face penalties.
Seven countries fall under the scope of this new initiative: Comoros, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, and Tanzania. Lecornu emphasized that humanitarian aid allocations to these countries will remain fully protected. According to OECD data from 2024, French funding accounted for 87 percent of all foreign aid received by the Comoros.
Pushing for a Reconstruction Shock After Cyclone Chido
On the second day of his itinerary, Lecornu turned his focus to infrastructure recovery following the devastation wreaked by Cyclone Chido in December 2024, a disaster that claimed at least 40 lives. Meeting with the Departmental Assembly of Mayotte, the Prime Minister called for an immediate operational shock to jump-start delayed building projects, conceding that reconstruction efforts have moved far too slowly.
“The reconstruction of the archipelago takes far too long (…) and it obviously creates a lot of despair that I measure,” Lecornu stated, pledging to clear bureaucratic bottlenecks. Despite a programming law passed in August 2025, numerous infrastructure initiatives have stalled.
To accelerate timelines, the state will increase upfront financial advances to local authorities from 30 percent to 60 percent. Lecornu also proposed reforming the governance structure of the reconstruction effort by granting local mayors greater responsibility and reinforcing the prefectural team.
In exchange for these higher financial advances, the Prime Minister demanded that municipal leaders expedite building permit approvals. He also advocated for industrializing building designs—such as utilizing a standardized architectural model previously deployed for regional secondary schools—to speed up the delivery of essential public infrastructure.
