Monsters and Critics.com
Antananarivo, Madagascar - A Frenchman become the latest foreigner to be killed this year in Madagascar after he was shot dead on his boat off the coast of the troubled Indian Ocean island at the weekend, a local newspaper reported Wednesday.
Jean Noel Sauvageot, 64, was attacked by a group of men as he was returning by boat on Sunday to his home, close to the town of Majunga on the north-west coast of the vast island, l'Express de Madagascar daily reported.
Sauvageot's widow told the paper she had just alerted her husband to a break-in at their home and that he was on his way to the remote area, which is best accessed by boat, when he was intercepted by the suspected thieves.
Another Frenchman who was with him on the boat escaped the attack by hiding in the cabin, the report said.
The report did not say whether the attackers were also travelling by boat.
Three suspects, including a 47-year-old policeman, were arrested within hours of the attack and taken to a police station in Majunga.
But the policeman later escaped from the station and is still at large, l'Express reported.
Sauvageot, who was a businessman, is the fifth foreign national to be killed this year in Madagascar, where banditry has spiralled in the wake of a coup in March 2009.
The power grab by interim President Andry Rajoelina plunged Madagascar into a crisis and stoked crime on the normally tranquil island of 20 million people, which is famous for its sandy beaches and abundance of rare flora and fauna
In January, a Spanish tourist in his forties was found dead in a taxi shortly after landing at the Ivato international airport in the capital Antananarivo
In May, a South African couple were hacked to death with machetes at the small hotel they ran on Sainte Marie island off Madagascar's north-east coast. The same month, an Italian man was also shot dead near his house in the south-western city of Tulear.
Two of the hotel's former employees have been charged with the South Africans' murder.
Meanwhile, residents in the capital have complained of a spike in house robberies, while in rural areas armed robbers have taken to holding up bush taxis.
Analysts have pegged the rise in crime to the economic turmoil caused by the political impasse.
Gross domestic product growth slowed to 0.6 percent last year from 7 percent in 2008, and Western donors have suspended all non- essential aid to the island over Rajoelina's refusal to honour a power-sharing deal.
Antananarivo, Madagascar - A Frenchman become the latest foreigner to be killed this year in Madagascar after he was shot dead on his boat off the coast of the troubled Indian Ocean island at the weekend, a local newspaper reported Wednesday.
Jean Noel Sauvageot, 64, was attacked by a group of men as he was returning by boat on Sunday to his home, close to the town of Majunga on the north-west coast of the vast island, l'Express de Madagascar daily reported.
Sauvageot's widow told the paper she had just alerted her husband to a break-in at their home and that he was on his way to the remote area, which is best accessed by boat, when he was intercepted by the suspected thieves.
Another Frenchman who was with him on the boat escaped the attack by hiding in the cabin, the report said.
The report did not say whether the attackers were also travelling by boat.
Three suspects, including a 47-year-old policeman, were arrested within hours of the attack and taken to a police station in Majunga.
But the policeman later escaped from the station and is still at large, l'Express reported.
Sauvageot, who was a businessman, is the fifth foreign national to be killed this year in Madagascar, where banditry has spiralled in the wake of a coup in March 2009.
The power grab by interim President Andry Rajoelina plunged Madagascar into a crisis and stoked crime on the normally tranquil island of 20 million people, which is famous for its sandy beaches and abundance of rare flora and fauna
In January, a Spanish tourist in his forties was found dead in a taxi shortly after landing at the Ivato international airport in the capital Antananarivo
In May, a South African couple were hacked to death with machetes at the small hotel they ran on Sainte Marie island off Madagascar's north-east coast. The same month, an Italian man was also shot dead near his house in the south-western city of Tulear.
Two of the hotel's former employees have been charged with the South Africans' murder.
Meanwhile, residents in the capital have complained of a spike in house robberies, while in rural areas armed robbers have taken to holding up bush taxis.
Analysts have pegged the rise in crime to the economic turmoil caused by the political impasse.
Gross domestic product growth slowed to 0.6 percent last year from 7 percent in 2008, and Western donors have suspended all non- essential aid to the island over Rajoelina's refusal to honour a power-sharing deal.