At least 31 bodies have been found in the Madagascan capital after protests called by an opponent of the president turned violent, taking the toll in the unrest to 34, officials said on Tuesday.
Firefighters found 25 charred bodies in the rubble of a shopping center ravaged by fire, while six bodies were recovered from a site owned by Madagascan President Marc Ravalomanana.
“There are 25 charred bodies. They got caught in the fire,” Antananarivo’s head fireman Jaona Andrianaivo said.
“We only found them this afternoon as there was a lot of rubble,” he said.
Police spokesman Lala Rakotonirina said the six others died in a stampede as protesters looted the warehouse belonging to Ravalomanana’s own company.
A prisoner was also killed, and 10 other wounded on Tuesday when security forces fired on inmates who tried to break out of a prison in the capital.
Two people died on Monday in the protests, security forces chief Lucien Emmanuel Raharijaona told reporters earlier although he did not elaborate.
The anti-government protests, called by Antananarivo mayor Andry Rajoelina, a vocal government critic, turned chaotic on Monday with protesters raiding and setting fire to buildings including a state-run radio station.
Rajoelina’s deputy said one protestor was shot in the head by guards in front of Ravalomanana’s private TV station MBS, which along with the state radio building had been besieged by an angry mob.
Although Rajoelina called off the demonstrations, he ruled out talks on Tuesday until the person behind the shooting was tried.
Police patrolling Antananarivo streets fired several warning shots in the air to disperse looters, said Armandin Ralaiko, a senior police official.
No demonstrations took place, but groups of opposition supporters gathered earlier in the day at street corners and a city park where the mayor held a huge rally on Saturday.
The growing political unrest forced Ravalomanana, who first came to power after disputed elections in 2001, to cut short a trip to South Africa and rush home on Sunday.
He had earlier called for calm and talks with his opponent who has labelled his regime a dictatorship.
“I call on people to calm down. We need to put aside our pride, our egos. We need to talk,” Ravalomanana said, adding he had already established “some contacts” with his rival.
Rajoelina has ratcheted up opposition to the government since last month, when it shut down his television network Viva for broadcasting an interview with former president Didier Ratsiraka and has become an increasingly outspoken opponent of the president.
He has repeatedly condemned what he says are shrinking freedoms on the Indian Ocean island and also fiercely criticized a massive project to lease vast swathes of farmland to South Korean industrial giant Daewoo.
Madagascar has been dogged over the years by political turmoil. The run-up to the 2006 presidential elections won by Ravalomanana was fraught with unrest, including a series of grenade explosions rocking the capital.
In 2001 the country’s presidential elections also ended in violence and political crisis when then president Ratsiraka refused to accept defeat.
The impasse split the island in two — with two capitals, two governments, and a divided army — until Ravalomanana was officially proclaimed president in May 2002.
Ratsiraka, who ruled Madagascar for 25 years, is currently living in exile in France after the drawn-out political tussle with his rival.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS