A number of French cities have imposed night-time curfews on young people following a surge in violence linked to drug trafficking. The latest city to bring in measures is Nîmes, where authorities have decided to impose a curfew on minors under the age of 16 between 21:00 and 06:00.
According to Mayor Jean-Paul Fournier, the situation had become “untenable” and drug traffickers had created a “climate of fear and terror.” Deputy Mayor Richard Schieven said the curfew would protect minors not involved in the drug trade “but also those aged 12 or 13 who are exploited by drug traffickers.”
The decision to impose a curfew comes after a series of shootings in the city, including one in broad daylight, which left one person dead and several injured. Last week, the body of a 19-year-old man was found partially burned on the outskirts of Nîmes. Additional police units will be sent to the city to help enforce the curfew and contain tensions.
Other cities in France have also imposed similar curfews. Béziers, located 120km southwest of Nîmes, has had a curfew in place for children under 13 between 23:00 and 06:00 since last year and expanded it to under 15s in certain areas last March. Mayor Robert Ménard said, “No 10-year-old out on the street at 02:00 is up to anything but mischief.” However, despite the measures, Béziers continues to be plagued by violence. At the weekend, balaclava-clad youths lured police and then attacked them with fireworks, local media reported.
Limoges in southwestern France has also imposed curfew measures for under 13s for the duration of the summer holidays. However, after violence involving 100 people at the weekend, Mayor Émile Roger Lombertie said the results of the measures were “not good.” “We had disturbances by young people, nobody managed to intercept and arrest them, and the curfew was useless,” Lombertie said, adding that more police were needed to enforce the measures.
The violence in these cities is part of a growing trend that has seen drug violence expand beyond Marseille, the long-time epicentre of gang wars in France. According to the interior ministry, 110 people died in France and more than 300 others were wounded in drug-related violence in 2024.
Justice Minister Gérard Darmanin and Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau have long insisted on the need to fight the scourge of the drugs trade. Earlier this year, they steered a bill through parliament which resulted in two maximum-security jails for drug barons, a new, dedicated branch of the prosecutors’ office, extra powers for investigators, and a special, protected status for informers.
Darmanin said on Tuesday that “the first 17 drug-traffickers, among them the most dangerous in our country”, were transferred to a high-security jail at Vendin-le-Vieil in northern France. A wave of arson and gun attacks at French prisons in the spring was widely pinned on drugs gangs hitting back at the government’s crackdown.