The city of Ikongo has been shaken for several days by the disappearance of an albino child.
Le Monde with AFP
The gendarmes of Madagascar confirmed, Tuesday, August 30, having killed 19 people shooting on an angry crowd, who had tried the day before entering their barracks in the south-east of the island, following suspicion of kidnapping an albino child.
“Nineteen people lost their lives and 21 injured are still treated” at Ikongo hospital, the small town where the clashes took place, they said in a statement, adding that an investigation is in progress. The chief doctor of the local hospital, the D r tango Oscar Toky, joined on Tuesday by AFP, gave the same number of deaths.
The gendarmes, who claim that calm has now returned, announced on Monday a first assessment of eleven dead.
Monday morning, shots had sounded near the gendarmerie barracks of this city plunged into green mountains, shaken for several days by the disappearance of an albino child. The authorities suspect an abduction.
In this southern African country, people with albinism are regularly the target of violence, often linked to certain beliefs. More than a dozen kidnappings, attacks and murders have been reported over the past two years in Madagascar, according to the United Nations.
Four suspects were arrested by the gendarmes and placed in detention. But the local community, angry, is decided to do justice itself. On Monday, at least 500 people went to the barracks, some equipped with “white weapons” and “machetes”, according to a source from the gendarmerie that was on the scene. And claimed to be given the four suspects.
A security perimeter is then installed, and the gendarmes try to lower the tension to “avoid a bloodbath”, said commander Andry Rakotondrazaka on Monday at a press conference in the capital Antananarivo.
But when the crowd tries to cross the security perimeter, things slip. The gendarmes first made use of tear gas and fired summons, they say. “But, as a last resort, the gendarmes had no choice but to resort to self-defense,” said the gendarmerie commander.
Tuesday morning, the local hospital was still awaiting the arrival of injured people who were to be evacuated, according to the D r tango Oscar Toky, which described significant injuries.
Malagasy police are regularly pinned by civil society for human rights violations, which are rarely the subject of prosecution.