Two killed, 80 wounded in Madagascar ‘terror blast’

ANTANANARIVO – Two people were killed and more than 84 others wounded in a grenade attack in Madagascar’s capital on Sunday during the country’s national day celebrations in what the president called “an act of terrorism”.

The blast struck the Mahamasina municipal stadium in Antananarivo at around 16h00, just as a free concert was taking place to mark the nation’s 56th anniversary of independence from France.

President Hery Rajaonarimampianina, who visited the injured in hospital, blamed the attack on tensions with political opponents in the Indian Ocean island nation.

“There may be differences of opinion between us, but these acts of destabilisation are unacceptable,” he said in a statement broadcast on national television, describing the attack as “not just a destabilising act, but an act of terrorism”.

Pleading for calm, he added: “We will not respond to violence with violence.”

‘A terrorist act’

According to the gendarmerie, the attack killed two teenagers aged 16 and 18, while 84 people were injured.

A military parade was held at the stadium earlier in the day.

“The explosion was caused by a grenade,” general Anthony Rakotoarison, head of security and intelligence with the national gendarmerie, told AFP by phone.

“We consider this a terrorist act,” he added.

The last attack to hit Madagascar was in January 2014 when a grenade blast killed a toddler and injured several other people outside the same stadium targeted on Sunday. No arrests were ever made in connection with that attack, and there was no claim of responsibility.

Madagascar, one of the world’s poorest countries, is slowly getting back on its feet after a lengthy period of political instability triggered by the 2009 ouster of president Marc Ravalomanana by Antananarivo’s then-mayor Andry Rajoelina.

Rajoelina led a transitional government until late 2013, when a new election which was designed to resolve complex struggles brought Rajaonarimampianina to power.

International donors, on which the country relies heavily, only recently returned to Madagascar after withdrawing over the 2009 turmoil, and the economy is starting to show the first signs of recovery.

– Nampa-AFP