Fourteen people were killed and 28 injured Monday, August 29, in Madagascar after the gendarmes opened fire on angry residents over a dark case of kidnapping, according to local and medical sources at AFP. “The gendarmes (…) fired on the crowd”said Jean Brunelle Razafintsiandraofa, deputy of the district of Ikongo (south-east), where the incident took place. “Nine people died instantly”, said Tango Oscar Toky, chief medical officer of the local hospital. And, out of 33 wounded received in the morning, five died in hospital, he adds.
Around 8 a.m. GMT, shots rang out in Ikongo. Since last week, the small town has been in shock: a child, albino, has disappeared and the authorities suspect a kidnapping.
On the large island in the Indian Ocean, people with albinism are regularly the target of violence. More than a dozen kidnappings, attacks and murders have been reported in the past two years, according to the United Nations.
“Machetes”
Four suspects were arrested by the gendarmes. But the locals decided to take the law into their own hands. In the morning, they went to the gendarmerie barracks and demanded that the four suspects be handed over to them, according to Mr. Razafintsiandraofa.
According to a source from the gendarmerie to AFP, at least 500 people landed, some with” cold steel “including “machetes”. “There were negotiations, the villagers insisted”, says the source. The gendarmes then decided to throw smoke bombs to disperse the crowd, and fired a few shots in the air.
But residents continued to try to force their way into the barracks. “We had no other choice but to defend ourselves…”says the same source.
The Malagasy police are regularly singled out by civil society for human rights violations, which are rarely prosecuted.
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