Madagascar: looting in Tulear on the sidelines of a student demonstration
Sellers of clothes, sandals or even furniture in the Andolombazaha district of Tulear have seen their stalls and small shops ransacked by looters.
(illustrative image) © RFI / Sarah Tétaud
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
Tulear has been shaken since Thursday February 25 by student demonstrations.
Saturday morning, while the police wiped stones and dispersed with tear gas the students who had gathered in the city center to demand, among other things, the payment of their scholarships, looters took advantage confusion to steal merchandise from traders.
In the evening, the Minister of Youth and Sports and that of Technical Education went there to discuss with the students.
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With our correspondent in Antananarivo,
Laetitia Bezain
On the university campus, surrounded by hundreds of students, the Minister of Youth and Sports, Roberto Tinoka, from Tuléar, promised to satisfy all their demands: payment of scholarships from Tuesday, construction of toilets , or even resumption of the rehabilitation of a university housing building.
The latter also indicated that he will speak to officials of the Ministry of Higher Education to resolve the problem of validation of master's degrees.
Responses that seem to have appeased the students.
Contacted, some indicate that they are waiting to see acts from next week, otherwise
their protest movement will
continue.
A movement that degenerated into riots on Saturday morning.
Sellers of clothes, sandals or even furniture in the Andolombazaha district have seen their stalls and small shops ransacked by looters.
“While the police pushed the students back to campus, groups took the opportunity to rob the traders. After a while, everyone was there, ordinary people, who took part in the looting, ”said
a witness
.
“They also tried to enter a rice store.
But the gendarmes and police arrived.
There are a lot of unemployed people here right now.
People are hungry, ”
he continues.
If the security forces, who dispersed the crowd and responded to the throwing of stones with tear gas, did not report any injuries, three witnesses claim to have seen a thief wounded in the back by a bullet coming from the security forces .
45 people were arrested, said the gendarmerie.
Saturday, at the end of the afternoon, after an emergency meeting with the joint design body, the prefect of Tulear called on the population to calm and indicated that all gatherings are prohibited in the city.
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