Madagascar: return to containment impossible for many residents of Tana

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

Madagascar experienced its first day of return to containment for Antananarivo and its region Analamanga. The capital and its surroundings are facing a renewed spread of Covid-19. If it recorded a few dozen cases daily, since last week, hundreds of cases per day are reported, including 303, this Monday, July 6. In total, the Big Island has 3,250 people with coronavirus, including 33 deaths. Two and a half months after having regained the right to move and work, the Tananariviens must therefore remain at home. A measure that the inhabitants, who for the most part live day to day, cannot respect.

Publicity

With our correspondent in Antananarivo, Laetitia Bezain

Residents going about their business and traffic jams in the midst of armored vehicles, trucks and police pick-ups. If 500 soldiers have been deployed on the streets to enforce containment measures, they are struggling to be heard by the population. In the center of the capital, on the edge of a staircase, Albert installed his glasses stand like every day: “  It is not a solution to force people to go home because everyone has to eat and do live with your family, pay your rent ... Up to now, we haven't sold anything because the police are chasing us and we have to hide and then come back here. They told us to go home and we told them that we cannot confine ourselves when we have nothing to eat  ”.

Hundreds of small street traders have defied the ban on going out despite the suspension of public transport and the resurgence of the coronavirus, particularly in the 1st arrondissement, one of the most affected. This is the case of Irene who tries to sell fabrics: “  I am afraid but I have no choice. If we do not go out, it is not from the disease that we will die but from hunger! We have no savings! What are we going to do if we can't eat anymore? To rob each other?  "

A return to confinement that others approve of, like Voahirana retired: "  It is the only solution but we would not be there if the first confinement had been strict and the controls more drastic  ".

Controls were reinforced in the afternoon with roadblocks in certain districts. The city's usual excitement subsided around 2 p.m.

► Read also: Managing funds to fight the coronavirus is a question in Madagascar

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• Madagascar
• Coronavirus