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French prisons were attacked in a series of terrorist attacks carried out by the DDPF (Rights of French prisoners) group.
DDPF, an acronym for Droit des prisonniers français (Rights of French Prisoners), is a Telegram group and a slogan used for attacks against prisons.
Started on 13 April 2025, and spanned several days, targeting multiple prisons and penitentiary-related places and targets across France with arson attacks on vehicles and automatic weapon fire.
The locations targeted by the group included the National School of Prison Administration, Toulon-La Farlède prison, Nanterre prison, Aix-Luynes prison, Valence prison, the South-Francilien prison, Tarascon prison, the home of a prison guard in Méaux and social housing occupied by prison guards in Marseille. In total, 24 vehicles were set on fire and around fifteen bullets were fired at the gate of Toulon-La Farlède prison.
While France is one of the largest consumers of cannabis in Western Europe, and the global trend is leaning toward the legalization of its recreational use – with French public opinion generally favourable to such an initiative – French Interior then Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin defends a highly punitive and repressive policy toward drug traffickers and users. He announced a project to place the two hundred individuals he considered the most dangerous drug traffickers in a new prison under a new solitary confinement regime. The plan was criticised by the general inspector of prisons, who saw it as potentially designed to drive inmates insane. Darmanin aimed to expand the measure to include 600 to 700 prisoners and to increase the number of such facilities to “four or five”.
On 14 April 2025, the same day the attacks began, the minister made public a plan to create new prisons.
A few days before the attacks, a Telegram group called DDPF was created. In this channel, messages and threats were shared targeting prison guards and French prison authorities, including statements such as “Guards, resign while you still can if you care about your families and loved ones” and “Know that our movement is spreading throughout France“. In this group, the militants stated that they intended to act in this way in response to prison overcrowding (131% occupancy), among other issues. They claimed not to be terrorists but to act in defence of human rights, which they said were under threat.
The attacks unfolded in two phases. First, during the night of 13 to 14 April 2025, seven vehicles were set on fire in the parking lot of the National School of Prison Administration (Énap) in Agen.
That same night, a female guard’s vehicle was torched at the South-Francilien prison centre in Réau.
The following day, on 15 April 2025 around 1 a.m. several individuals opened fire on the facade of the Toulon-La Farlède prison. One of the weapons used was an AK-47, which fired about fifteen rounds into the front of the building before the attackers managed to flee. Several individuals were reportedly seen inside a vehicle during the attack. A large “DDPF” symbol was found spray-painted on the entrance used by prison transport vehicles.
The prisons of Nanterre in Hauts-de-Seine, Aix-Luynes, and Valence were targeted by vehicle arson attacks. Anarchist slogans were found at some of the sites.The inscription “DDPF“, was spray-painted on cars in the parking lots of the Nîmes and Luynes prisons.
In Marseille, vehicles belonging to several prison guards were set on fire in the parking lot of the social housing where they lived. The full toll, in addition to the gunfire on the facade of Toulon-La Farlède prison, amounts to 21 vehicles burned.
Three vehicles were set on fire in the parking lot of the Tarascon prison, in the Bouches-du-Rhône.In Villenoy, in Seine-et-Marne, a fire broke out in the stairwell of a building housing a prison officer. The inscription “DDPF” was also found on a wall of the building.
The Ministry of Justice referred to the attacks as “coordinated”. Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin stated on the social network X that the attacks showed that the “Republic [was] confronted with drug trafficking”.
The national anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office and the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI) took charge of the investigation.
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