Marseille: Up to 1,000 people at the Old Port against racism, following the death of Pengo Bossio Wangi

On the evening of Monday, October 26, 2026, the Old Port of Marseille filled with protesters who came to denounce racism, three days after the shooting in Trappes and La Verrière, in the Yvelines department. Police counted 800 participants, while organizers estimated more than 1,000, according to Africanews. The gathering was called by an anti-racist coalition, unions, and local collectives.

On the morning of October 23, 2026, an armed man opened fire on passersby in these two communes in the southwestern suburbs of Paris. Pengo Bossio Wangi, 26, a French MMA prospect of African descent, was killed. Five people were wounded, including a 12-year-old girl who was hit while on her way to the swimming pool, and whose condition remained critical.

The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office has taken up the case and is investigating a racist terrorist attack. A 39-year-old suspect was arrested shortly after in Coignières. He is entitled to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. President Emmanuel Macron described it as a "racist terrorist attack."

A mobilization starting from the neighborhoods

On October 24, several hundred people had already gathered in Trappes, a city of more than 34,000 inhabitants, at the call of the Adama Committee, according to the Belga agency. Loved ones of the victim, families, and local and national elected officials observed a minute of silence behind a banner reading "Words kill." Deputy Mathilde Panot, present with Deputy Thomas Portes, declared: "Racism kills, the far-right kills."

In Marseille, the placards targeted racial hatred, without a formal list of demands. The choice of the city speaks volumes: it is France's leading port, a crossroads of the Mediterranean, where families from the Maghreb, the Sahel, and Central Africa have lived for generations.

What this says to Africans in France

For African and Afro-descendant communities in France, the case touches a sensitive nerve: the fear of becoming a designated target in a political climate where immigration occupies the center of public debate. A fear that the mobilization in Marseille, far from the Yvelines, has brought to the forefront.

The next steps will play out before the French justice system: the terrorist classification adopted by the prosecutor's office, if confirmed, would force the State to name the racist motive for what it is. As for the families, they are first and foremost awaiting news of the 12-year-old girl.