The State wants to put an end to the insecurity which is rampant in the Alaotra-Mangoro region and which is impacting Analamanga and Betsiboka. In the introduction to a meeting of the WTO-NAT yesterday, the Prime Minister suggests exemplary measures.
Passivity and complicity. These are the key words of the speech of Christian Ntsay, Prime Minister, at the start of a meeting of the National Joint Design Body (WTO-NAT), which was held in Ambatondrazaka yesterday. A speech during which the tenant of Mahazoarivo demanded convincing results and announced that “drastic decisions” will be taken in this direction.
The choice to hold the meeting of the supreme entity responsible for deciding on the strategic orientations on internal security, which is the OMC-NAT, in the capital of the Alaotra Mangoro region is not fortuitous. The abductions perpetrated by former cattle thieves converted into kidnappers have terrorized several localities in this region for several years. The evil was stopped for a few months.
However, a particularly violent flashback has been observed for several weeks. Cases of kidnapping in rural areas are even spreading and are spreading to localities in the Analamanga and Betsiboka regions. In response to this whiff of insecurity, especially in rural areas, the state launched Operation “Harato”, or fishing net, at the beginning of the month. Three hundred elements of the Defense and Security Forces (FDS) are deployed on site.
Replacement
“We have already taken our responsibilities. The question that arises however is, why do we have no results. And why is this problem recurrent in this part of the country?” launches the Prime Minister, adding, “we cannot leave the situation as it is”. To hear the words of the head of government who is also the president of the OMC-NAT, two things are identified as the causes of this situation, “insufficient assumption of responsibility and complicity”. Cash, Christian Ntsay says, “the reason why there is a problem is because there is not enough accountability”. Taking the example of a recent case of kidnapping, the tenant of Mahazoarivo wonders why people kidnapped in the locality of Morarano Chrome are not found only in Anjozorobe.
“How is it that cases of abduction take place within society and we have the means to carry out investigations within society and network the territory? However, these people and the kidnappers did not take the plane. They took the land route. Why weren’t they intercepted in time?” the Prime Minister is indignant. He adds, “if names are denounced, if officials have been pointed out systematically for a long time, that means that there is complicity in the air”.
Also, the head of government indicates that the time is “to take a decision to remedy the situation”. He underlines twice, “there is no situation on which we cannot make a decision”. Drawing parallels with a similar security situation in the Tsaratanana district in 2019, Mahazoarivo’s tenant is clear. As in Tsaratanana, decisions must lead to actions that will result in a lasting recovery of the situation.
In Tsaratanana also irresponsibility and complicity meant that the kidnappers were on conquered ground, to hear Christian Ntsay. He thus recalls that in the context of taking control of the security situation, elected officials and officials, including senior officers, were imprisoned for complicity with the criminals. That it was necessary “to take the difficult decision to replace all the persons in charge at the level of the district where there was this problem”.
From the outset, yesterday, the Prime Minister maintained that, like his speech, the exchanges during this meeting of the WTO-NAT, exceptionally relocated to Ambatodrazaka, will be without complacency. “We are going to tell each other the truth in order to find the appropriate solutions,” he said then. To hear it, there could be a tsunami that will sweep away several decentralized officials from the Alaotra Mangoro region. “What we need now are bold and determined leaders,” concludes Christian Ntsay.