On September 30, 1976, fifty years ago, Yann-Kel Kernaleguen, a young activist of the Breton Liberation Front (FLB), lost his life at the age of 22 in the explosion of a bomb at the Ti Voujeret military camp, near Châteaulin.
His short life was marked by a constant commitment to Brittany and the Breton language. As a law student, he chose to write an exam paper in Breton. This choice was considered a provocation by the university institution. His paper was not graded: he received a zero and was expelled from the faculty.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the FLB conducted a clandestine campaign of bombings primarily targeting public buildings, military installations, and symbols of the French state. The movement aimed to inscribe the Breton claim in the political debate through these actions. Bretagne Culture Diversité recalls that Kernaleguen died with the device he was in the process of placing at the military camp under construction in Ti Voujeret.
However, the precise circumstances of his death have been the subject of different accounts. According to the generally accepted version, the device is said to have exploded prematurely. His relatives and Breton activists later claimed that he had attempted to defuse the bomb after noticing the presence of a person nearby.
His death had a significant impact on the Breton movement of the time. Over the decades, several commemorations have been organized in his memory, particularly in Quimper, where he is buried in the Kerfeunteun cemetery.
Fifty years after his death, the event remains a significant episode in the history of the contemporary Breton movement and the period of political confrontation surrounding the actions of the FLB in the 1960s and 1970s.
