[ 2012-07-22 ]

Madagascar troops 'mutiny' near main airport
ANTANANARIVO (AFP) - Troops at a military camp
near Madagascar's main airport mutinied on Sunday,
the defence minister said, and all flights to
Antananarivo's Ivato international airport have
been suspended.

The firing began at 6:00 am but abated in about
four hours, AFP journalists said.

"This morning there was indeed a mutiny led by
certain elements. The chief of staff has things in
hand," defence minister Andre Lucien Rakotoarimasy
told AFP over the telephone.

"It's going on, we don't know anything about their
demands for the moment," he added, refusing to
specify the number of mutineers.

The island nation has been in crisis for three
years after strongman Andry Rajoelina ousted
leader Marc Ravalomanana, who is living in exile
in South Africa.

The rival sides signed a roadmap in September 2011
meant to guide Madagascar to new elections, but
that deal still has not been fully implemented.

In 2010, former president Ravalomanana was
sentenced in absentia for the murders of around 30
protestors killed by his presidential guard in
2009 in protests that led to his overthrow in an
army-backed coup.

Source - AFP

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