Children and adults are vanishing at an alarming rate in the capital. In one week, three minors and one family man have been found murdered. Law enforcement is mobilizing to combat the kidnapping wave sweeping Antananarivo.
Just yesterday, thirteen people were reported missing in the capital, including five adults and eight minors. The police report from Sunday, July 5, which documented ninety child disappearances since January, has already been surpassed. Forty-three were found. Investigations were opened, but forty-seven remain missing. Families have received no updates and searches have yielded nothing. Since then, numbers have worsened and the situation is becoming alarming.
The phenomenon is taking a dramatic turn with disappearances followed by murders. In one week, four missing persons were found dead: Sahala Fanekena, a 12-year-old girl, discovered in Amberokely on June 30; Joel, a 35-year-old family man, on July 1; Fetra, a 17-year-old teenager, on July 5; and Johary Mitantsoa Ravelomanantsoa, 19, a student at Antananarivo's Institute of Advanced Technology, found yesterday, July 7, in a quarry in Ambatomaro.
Living in anguish
The government describes these tragedies as acts of political destabilization. But for affected families, it is above all a human tragedy.
Parents live in constant fear. One civil servant father confides: "Every day, I wonder if my children will come home. We need law enforcement to be more present in our neighborhoods." Eveline Rasoarimanana, a merchant