Portrait of a hero: Who is Mamoudou Gassama?
A brave illegal immigrant who scaled the facade of a four-storey building in the north of capital to save a child hanging from a ledge in Paris was born and raised in the African country of Mali.
Mamoudou Gassama, 22, told French President Emmanuel Macron that he arrived in France late last year without any legal documents.
‘I left Mali a long time ago, parsing through Burkina-Faso and Nigeria. It was very difficult,’ he said.
Gassama eventually reached Libya, where he became one of the thousands of refugees who pay people smugglers to take them to Europe by the Mediterranean.
‘It was terrible on the boat. There were so many of us, a lot of people,’ he said. Gassama’s journey finally brought him to the Paris suburb of Montreuil. He had earlier tried to cross the Mediterranean in March 2014 to reach Italy, but was caught by police.
A young Malian employee, Lassana Bathily, was credited with saving the lives of six hostages including a baby when he led them to a safe hiding place, escaped, then directed police to their rescue.
Two weeks later, Bathily was given a medal and a French passport by then President François Hollande.
I was not thinking of anything. I went straight up. I saw all these people shouting, and cars sounding their horns. I climbed up and, thank God, I saved the child. I first felt afraid when I had saved the child. We went into the living room, and I started to shake. I could hardly stand up, I had to sit down.” Mamoudou Gassama | Malian immigrant