Madagascar: many dead and escapees during a mutiny in Farafangana prison

Text by: RFI Follow

3 min

A mutiny took place in Farafangana prison, a town on the south-eastern coast of Madagascar. In the middle of the day, inmates rebelled against the prison officers of this remand center which is located in the city center and which has 357 prisoners. Twenty of them were killed during this mutiny which allowed eighty-eight people to escape, the authorities say.

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It was around 12:15 pm, shortly after lunch, that the prisoners attacked the prison officers.

"  The detainees were in excess and some managed to take the weapon of one of the agents  ", indicates the Secretary of State for the Gendarmerie, General Richard Ravalomanana. A guard was injured.

"  The mutiny was very well organized  ", according to the director of the prison administration of the Atsimo Atsinanana region, Nadège Patricia Razafindrakala.

“  The detainees split into two groups. Those on the west side attacked the prison guards by throwing stones at them, while those on the east side forced a passage through the toilets to escape,  ”she said.

An escape which generated a very harsh response from the police. Of the 88 escapees, 39 were arrested, 8 were seriously injured and 20 others were killed by the police.

"  They succumbed to the fire of the security forces who came as reinforcements because they made resistance during the pursuit with the weapon they had stolen and throwing stones  ", said the Secretary of State at the Gendarmerie. The weapon has since been recovered, the Justice Ministry said.

The photos of these deaths circulated on social networks all afternoon and have shocked many.

Two prisoners who fled aboard a canoe are missing, underlines the director of the prison administration of the region.

“  We tried to shoot to stop them and they disappeared… the canoe sank,  ” she continues.

The reason for this mutiny is not yet established. The director of the region's prison administration explains that stricter measures have been put in place in remand centers for several months to fight against the coronavirus epidemic. Family visits were no longer allowed, for example.

► To read also: Coronavirus: Amnesty International calls on Madagascar to unclog its prisons

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