Authorities in Madagascar have imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in the capital after protests over frequent power outages and water shortages turned violent, according to a top security official.
Police fired teargas to disperse the thousands of mostly youth protesters who were marching and carrying placards, in Antananarivo, the capital.
The demonstrators demand restoration of reliable water and electricity across the country, Reuters News Agency reports.
"There are unfortunately individuals taking advantage of the situation to destroy other people's property," General Angelo Ravelonarivo, who heads a joint security body that includes the police and the military, said in a statement he read on privately owned Real TV late on Thursday.
Protecting civilian properties
To protect "the population and their belongings," the security forces decided to impose a curfew from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. "until public order is restored", the statement said.
The government of President Andry Rajoelina, who was re-elected in 2023, had vowed to improve the living conditions of the people of Madagascar, an island nation in the Indian Ocean.
During the protests earlier on Thursday, a large shopping mall in the capital was looted and then burnt, and the homes of two lawmakers were looted and vandalised, according to Reuters.
The protesters, who defied an earlier police ban on demonstration, marched while chanting, "We need water, we need electricity."
‘Firm preventative’
After the protests were dispersed, they later spread into various neighbourhoods of the capital.
On Wednesday, the national police chief, Jean Herbert Andriantahiana Rakotomalala, warned that security forces would "take firm preventive...measures against those tempted to break the law."
