Turf wars between rival trafficking gangs claimed 110 lives last year, and French families are despairing at the spiral of violence consuming their young
The murder of 15-year-old Azad Budak was filmed by a passer-by and posted on Telegram, an encrypted social media platform. Almost immediately, the video of him lying on the ground with a bullet in his chest spread through Besançon, the eastern French city where he lived. His two brothers, aged 11 and 16 at the time, saw the images, as did his neighbours, who phoned his parents to say what had happened.
“I couldn’t walk, talk or think,” said Sema Budak, his mother. “He was a baby to me.”
