Madagascar security forces fire teargas at protest
Reuters
By Alain Iloniaina
ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - Security forces in Madagascar's capital fired teargas to disperse a march by members of the opposition on Wednesday, a week before the Indian Ocean island holds a referendum on a new constitution.
About a thousand opposition protesters gathered in the capital and tried to march towards a stadium to hold a rally but security forces fired about a dozen teargas canisters and chased them away from the area.
Madagascar has been in political gridlock since March 2009 when dissident soldiers backing then opposition leader Andry Rajoelina stormed one of Antananarivo's two presidential palaces and forced President Marc Ravalomanana into exile.
Rajoelina was then named president but regional neighbours branded the takeover a coup, international donors froze aid worth hundreds of millions of dollars and the African Union later slapped sanctions on the continent's youngest leader.
Read more...
By Alain Iloniaina
ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - Security forces in Madagascar's capital fired teargas to disperse a march by members of the opposition on Wednesday, a week before the Indian Ocean island holds a referendum on a new constitution.
About a thousand opposition protesters gathered in the capital and tried to march towards a stadium to hold a rally but security forces fired about a dozen teargas canisters and chased them away from the area.
Madagascar has been in political gridlock since March 2009 when dissident soldiers backing then opposition leader Andry Rajoelina stormed one of Antananarivo's two presidential palaces and forced President Marc Ravalomanana into exile.
Rajoelina was then named president but regional neighbours branded the takeover a coup, international donors froze aid worth hundreds of millions of dollars and the African Union later slapped sanctions on the continent's youngest leader.
Read more...