In brief
Mehdi Kessaci, aged 20, was shot dead in Marseille as he parked his car, marking the second time tragedy has struck the Kessaci family due to drug gang violence. His brother Brahim was murdered in a similar manner in 2020. Amine Kessaci, their younger brother, is now an activist against drug violence and has faced threats after establishing an association aimed at helping victims of such crimes.
A young French campaigner, who set up an association to help victims of drugs violence and took their cause to President Emmanuel Macron, has lost a second brother to suspected criminal gangs in Marseille.
Amine Kessaci's 20-year-old brother Mehdi was parking his car in the centre of the city, when a motorcycle drew up and the pillion passenger opened fire with a 9mm pistol.
Their elder brother, Brahim, was murdered in 2020. He was shot and his charred body found in a burned-out car, a common method in gang killings known locally as a barbecue.
Marseille is renowned for worsening drugs wars, with rival gangs from high-immigration neighbourhoods in the north of the city battling over turf.
While Amine's murdered elder brother, Brahim, was known to have become involved with drugs gangs, investigators say that was not true of Mehdi, who had ambitions to become a policeman.
They fear the murder was a warning aimed at Amine.
That hypothesis is absolutely not being ruled out, said Marseille chief prosecutor Nicolas Bessone on French radio.
And if it turns out to be the case, it will mean we have crossed another threshold. It brings back certain terrible periods in our country's history, when you went out and killed people simply because they were from a family with whom you had problems.
After his elder brother's murder, Amine set up an association called Conscience, which aims to help young people in Marseille's poor estates to escape the clutches of powerful drugs gangs.
Amine, now 22, lives under police protection after receiving death threats. He was previously selected to meet President Macron in 2021 to discuss projects to improve life in Marseille.
It's just so sad for my friend and for his mother, said Christine Juste, a Green Party city councillor in Marseille. No mother should go through that — losing two children. And I'm so angry that in France's second city, people can be murdered so easily in plain daylight.
According to reports, 14 drugs-related murders have occurred in Marseille this year alone. Amine's activism continues as he seeks to create links between families affected by drugs violence and local employers, promoting a safer environment for youth.
