Madagascar: tension mounts in Tamatave, between pandemic and social grumbling

Text by: Sarah Tétaud Follow

In Tamatave, social discontent spread this week to the population of certain districts of the second city and economic capital of the country. The island's biggest coronavirus outbreak, the port city experienced an afternoon of riots on Wednesday. Clashes between law enforcement and residents erupted after the former beat up a man who refused to respect confinement. Since then, the situation has remained electrical.

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“  What people fear most now in Tamatave is the social crisis, the economic crisis. They fear it even more than the pandemic.  For Georges Geeraerts, resident of Tamatave and entrepreneur in the region, confinement from 1 p.m. is an aberration. “  Closing schools is one thing, but you have to let the operators work, all these little people who are in the informal sector going about their business because we have no alternative anyway . The state is not there to help them. The few aids that have been given are nothing!  "

Many on the ground believe that the recent suspension of operations due to the pandemic of Ambatovy, the largest mining company in the region which supports several thousand households, is likely to have repercussions on the economic fabric of the city. Its many service providers are following suit. Thousands of workers could be partially or totally unemployed.

The deputy of Tamatave and former mayor of the city Roland Ratsiraka is the first politician to have hammered that containment was not a strategy adapted to Madagascar to face the health crisis. Since then, he has never ceased to urgently demand deconfinement, to avoid that "  his city, his island, do not sink into the economic slump  ".

"  The result of our" confinement to Malagasy " [Editor's note: authorization to be on the public highway from 5h to 13h] , what is it ?! Today is almost 1,000 cases. This system multiplies the number of positive cases, it multiplies the number of serious cases, it multiplies social and economic problems. As a result, people are increasingly in poverty. And we would like to make us, Tamatavians, take responsibility for the spread of the epidemic ?! Here, we already have the health explosion, and every day we risk the social explosion. When you say to people "wash your hands", we are not in France or Mauritius there! The majority of the population of Tana and Tamatave do not have access to running water. She is forced to go out to queue to access the water. When you say "wash your hands", you need soap, right? How can you get soap without working? Who can explain this to me? !  "

To the President of the Republic who had qualified the population of Tamatave “ undisciplined  ” last week  , he retorts with virulence: “  Here, we apply exactly the same measures as in Tana. Except that in Tana, there may have been a little response to the disease. Here, the response is against the population, against doctors who do not accept Covid-Organics, the response is against those who dare to speak. Our doctors are traumatized. Nowhere in the world, we have crisis management where we arrest doctors, where we scare them and where we threaten them. It only exists with us! The government has a wrong fight. It is the people of Tamatave who become the enemy, and that is why we were sent armored vehicles. They did not come to respond to covid-19. They came to watch a population that is already in difficulty. To say "do not leave your home"  ". 

“  Everything is politicized. We have come to mix health with politics,  ”he finally laments. The deputy has just challenged the state to demand more transparency and the truth about the real number of deaths caused by the epidemic. 
At the same time, in Tamatave, it was announced that the start of clinical trials for injection therapy promoted by the president would be imminent.

But the number of contaminations continues to grow . And the deployment of the 500 elements of the security forces freshly landed from Antananarivo to come in reinforcement was perceived as a provocation for Tamatavians, waiting, on the contrary , for financial and food aid from the State.

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• Madagascar
• Coronavirus

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