January 7: On This Day in World History … briefly
The phrase ‘Je suis Charlie’ (French for ‘I am Charlie’) came to be a common worldwide sign of solidarity against the attacks. Many demonstrators used the slogan to express solidarity with the magazine.
2015: Mass murder at satirical newspaper in Paris
On 7 January 2015 at about 11:30am CET local time, two brothers, Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, forced their way into the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper ‘Charlie Hebdo’ in Paris. Armed with rifles and other weapons, they killed 12 people and injured 11 others. The gunmen identified themselves as belonging to the Islamic terrorist group which took responsibility for the attack. Several related attacks followed in the Île-de-France region on 7–9 January 2015, including the Hypercacher kosher supermarket siege where a terrorist held 19 hostages, of whom he murdered four Jewish people.
France raised its Vigipirate terror alert and deployed soldiers in Île-de-France and Picardy. A major manhunt led to the discovery of the suspects, who exchanged fire with police. The brothers took hostages at a signage company in Dammartin-en-Goële on 9 January and were shot dead when they emerged from the building firing. On 11 January, about two million people, including more than 40 world leaders, met in Paris for a rally of national unity, and 3.7 million people joined demonstrations across France. The phrase ‘Je suis Charlie’ (I am Charlie) became a common slogan of support at the rallies and in social media. The staff of Charlie Hebdo continued with the publication, and the following issue print ran 7.95 million copies in six languages, compared to its typical print run of 60 000 in only French.
On the morning of Wednesday, January 7, Charlie Hebdo staff were gathered at 10 Rue Nicolas-Appert in the 11th arrondissement of Paris for the weekly editorial meeting starting around 10.30am. The magazine had moved into an unmarked office at this address following the 2011 firebombing of their previous premises due to the magazine’s original satirisation of the Prophet Muhammad.
Around 11.30am, two armed and hooded men first burst into the wrong address at 6 Rue Nicolas-Appert, shouting “Is this Charlie Hebdo?” and threatening people. After realising their mistake and firing a bullet through a glass door, the two men left for 10 Rue Nicolas-Appert. There, they encountered cartoonist Corinne ‘Coco’ Rey outside and at gunpoint, forced her to enter the passcode into the electronic door.
The men sprayed the lobby with gunfire upon entering. The first victim was maintenance worker Frédéric Boisseau, who was killed as he sat at the reception desk. The gunmen forced Rey at gunpoint to lead them to a second-floor office, where 15 staff members were having an editorial meeting, Charlie Hebdo’s first news conference of the year. Reporter Laurent Léger said they were interrupted by what they thought was the sound of a firecracker – the gunfire from the lobby – and recalled, “We still thought it was a joke. The atmosphere was still joyous.”
The gunmen burst into the meeting room and called out Charlie’s name to target him before opening fire. The shooting lasted five to ten minutes. The gunmen aimed at the journalists’ heads and killed them. During the gunfire, Rey survived uninjured by hiding under a desk, from where she witnessed the murders of Wolinski and Cabu. Léger also survived by hiding under a desk as the gunmen entered. Other witnesses reported that the gunmen identified themselves as belonging to Al-Qaeda in Yemen.
Psychoanalyst Elsa Cayat, a French columnist of Tunisian Jewish descent, was killed. Another female columnist present at the time, crime reporter Sigolène Vinson, survived; one of the shooters aimed at her but spared her, saying, “I’m not killing you because you are a woman”, and telling her to convert to Islam, read the Quran and wear a veil. She said he left shouting, “Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!” (roughly translated: God is most great!)
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Like the South Coast Herald’s Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and Instagram
To receive our FREE email newsletter, click HERE
