Paris 2024: after the inauguration of the Austerlitz basin, the anger of those close to Amara Dioumassy, who died on the construction site
An inauguration with great fanfare, for a promise more than thirty years old. On May 15, 1990, Jacques Chirac, then mayor of Paris, said he would swim in the Seine “in three years”. Thirty-four years have passed, and it was finally Anne Hidalgo who inaugurated the immense Austerlitz basin project on Thursday May 2. This colossal work must allow the storage of rainwater and wastewater before it flows into the Seine. Objective: to make it possible for athletes to swim in the river for certain events of the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games, which will take place from July 26 to September 8. Cost of the operation: 80 million eurosaccording to the town hall.
But for Amara Dioumassy’s family, the event is associated with tragedy. This 51-year-old Malian worker died on June 16, 2023, crushed by a truck while working on the basin construction site. His death was noted at number 2 on rue Mazas, in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, just below the forensic institute, according to the death certificate that franceinfo was able to consult. The firefighters “came to note his death, he was transported directly to the institute, from where he was sent back to be buried in Mali”says Lyes Chouaï, CGT union delegate from Sade, the company which employed the truck driver. After a gathering organized by the CGT and the family by Amara Dioumassy in his memory, Saturday April 27Anne Hidalgo and Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, the Minister of Sports, paid tribute to him during the inauguration on Thursday.
Amara Dioumassy leaves behind twelve children – the last of whom was born a few months after his death – a wife and a mother who remained in Mali, as well as inconsolable siblings. “He was a loving brother, who came to join us and help his family”tells franceinfo her older sister, aged 56, who has lived in France since the 1980s. “I was on crutches when my brother died”remembers Demba Dioumassy, who managed all the administrative procedures after Amara’s death. “He came to see me every day. But he spoke to me very little about his work. Our mother mourns the death of her son every day.”
Arriving in France in 2010, Amara Dioumassy, a jeweler by training, took on temporary contracts before signing a permanent contract as a construction worker, in 2017, at Darras & Jouanin, a company belonging to the Fayat group, service provider to Paris town hall. Unlike many Games projects, that of the Austerlitz basin is not managed by Solideo, the delivery company for the Olympic works. The public establishment, which manages more than 70 construction sites for the occasion, has developed a charter in order to limit work accidents as much as possible. On the Solideo construction sites, “There were no deaths.”underlines Lyes Chouaï. “On the other hand, on construction sites which are not marked OJ [dont celui du Grand Paris Express et du bassin d’Austerlitz], there are dead and injured. We can clearly see that, when the means are put in place, working conditions are better.”
After the death of Amara Dioumassy, Darras & Jouanin undertook to pay for the funeral, which cost the family more than 17,000 euros, according to its lawyer, Linda Sayah. The money has not yet been transferred, the latter specifies, but she is hopeful that it will be done “shortly”. “The relatives are a little relieved, because the funeral was very expensivereacts the lawyer. But that’s not the most important thing in their eyes. They are still very tormented by this story, because there are still many gray areas to be clarified. They are eagerly awaiting the results of the investigation.”
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- Source of information and images “francetvinfo“
