Madagascar: fire in student accommodation at the University of Antananarivo
Students after the fire that destroyed their accommodation at the University of Ankatso, in the center of Antananarivo in Madagascar.
RFI / Laetitia Bezain
Text by: Laetitia Bezain Follow
3 min
A fire devastated student accommodation at Ankatso University, in the center of Antananarivo, the Madagascan capital.
During the night from Saturday to Sunday, the fire broke out in one of the prefabricated housing blocks.
70 students, mostly from the Sava region, were left homeless.
The origin of the fire is not yet established.
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From our correspondent in Antananarivo,
They are about thirty, most still in shock, to observe the heap of charred debris which was their rooms a few hours ago.
Renewable energy student Andry Leong-Ki is the president of this university housing block:
“
I was sleeping when the fire started.
When I woke up I saw black smoke everywhere.
We looked for water to put out the flames, but within ten minutes the whole block was on fire.
We called the fire department, but their number was not working.
They arrived later.
It is not known if it was a short circuit that caused the fire or if it was intentional.
But if there is a short circuit here, it is very worrying since there were no more circuit breakers.
We would like this block to be rehabilitated because the room where we are relocated is really narrow and we are very numerous.
"
Rooms for 4 of 5m²
In the ashes and around the carcass of the building, some recover what remains of their notebooks eaten by the flames, but still legible.
Sitting on the floor, staring blankly, Mirana studying economics:
“
I am writing my brief and everything has gone to ashes.
I got out of my room alive, but I lost everything: my computer, my phone and all my clothes.
When I saw the fire, I was very scared and immediately went to wake up the others because most of the students were sleeping.
I did not have time to collect anything.
The living conditions
here do not respect human dignity.
There are four of us in a 5 m2 room.
There are holes in the roof.
Some rooms do not have windows to be able to escape.
This is how our life is here and we have to adapt.
But it is difficult.
The infrastructure is dilapidated so it was likely that something like that would happen, but we never imagined there would be so much damage.
"
Food was provided by the Ministry of Higher Education.
The students were temporarily relocated to a room at the university.
Ten days ago, 112 student housing huts adjacent to the University of Tulear, in the south-west of the country, were destroyed by fire.
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Madagascar
Education
Housing
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