At least 13 people have been killed in northern Madagascar as troops loyal to President Marc Ravalomanana pushed ahead with an offensive into one of the last remaining bastions of the country’s former ruler, Didier Ratsiraka, a military official said.
Nine soldiers loyal to Ratsiraka have been killed, while Ravalomanana’s camp lost three troops, said Ravalomanana-backer General Randrianafidisoa.
A female civilian was also killed by a stray bullet during the fighting around the northern provincial capital of Antsiranana, he said.
Ravalomanana’s troops began planning the attack following regional leaders’ failure to peacefully negotiate the surrender of Ratsiraka’s forces at the renegade port.
Ratsiraka’s troops attempted to squash the approach of government forces, and fighting broke out around 100 kilometres south of Antsiranana, General Peter Behajaina said in Ambilobe, a small town south of the port formerly known as Diego Suarez.
Behajaina said the renegade troops started firing an anti-aircraft weapon horizontally as his men approached. ”No one was hurt — they simply shot blindly, just to show they were there,” a soldier at the scene said.
”We didn’t advance because it was night,” he added. ”This blind shooting proves that these are militia fighters who don’t know how to use arms and who are afraid,” Behajaina said.
On Saturday afternoon, some 200 soldiers left Ambilobe in light armoured vehicles carrying anti-aircraft machineguns, mortars, and rocket launchers to join other groups of soldiers already in Ambilogodra, a hill 50 kilometres north of Ambilobe that is still held by Ratsiraka’s forces.
Residents nearby said gunfire had stopped by Sunday, and both sides said they have had no news from their troops. Antsiranana pro-Ratsiraka governor Jean-Robert Gara said by telephone that he has had no news from his troops, who have installed a large machine gun by the hill at Ambilogodra.
”They want to kill us. We’re going to defend ourselves, we’re going to defend our village,” he said.
Ravalomanana and Ratsiraka have been embroiled in a bitter power-struggle since a disputed presidential election in December, and in recent weeks their feud has degenerated into armed conflict.
Ravalomanana’s forces have made a strong push to force down troops and governors still loyal to Ratsiraka, who set up blockades after the power-struggle failed to show signs of easing.
But as Ravalomanana’s troops have pushed into the Indian Ocean island’s provinces the past three weeks, the militiamen loyal to the former ruler have given up their blockades at the first sign of fighting, witnesses have said.
Also on Sunday, Ravalomanana’s army chief said his forces had arrested the former military chief of the northwestern Mahajanga region.
The pro-Ratsiraka general, Polycarpe Rakotonarahasina, was arrested several days ago in the capital, Antananarivo, after he fled his port town when Ravalomanana’s troops took it over on June 14, he said. – Sapa-AFP