The day after the murder of a teacher stabbed to death in front of a middle school in Arras, up to 7,000 soldiers from the Sentinel force will be deployed in the territory, the Elysée announced this Saturday, confirming information from RTL. The soldiers will be mobilized by Monday evening, until further notice, specifies the presidency.
France went into “emergency attack” alert on Friday, the highest level of the Vigipirate system which allows the exceptional mobilization of resources in a limited time. Guest of TF1’s 8 p.m. show on Friday evening, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin spoke of “an extremely negative atmosphere” in France, making the link “between what happened, no doubt, in the Middle East and the “action” of the Arras attacker.
An attack three days before the commemoration of the assassination of Samuel Paty
The Vigipirate bulletin underlines that the strengthening of the security level comes “in a period of high exposure” with the Rugby World Cup, the events in the Middle East “which add to an already seriously degraded international geopolitical situation”. The Arras attack also comes as the assassination of Samuel Paty, a history and geography teacher beheaded on October 16, 2020, will be commemorated on Monday for showing caricatures of Mohammed during lessons on freedom of expression.
The Arras attacker, Mohammed Mogouchkov, was the subject of recent monitoring by the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI). He was arrested on Thursday “to check if he did not have a weapon on him”, to check his phone and his encrypted messaging, before being released, according to Gérald Darmanin. Operation Sentinel was first deployed in 2015 by François Hollande, after the attacks targeting Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher.