© AFP – RIJASOLO
Malagasy police officers disperse a prohibited demonstration in Antananarivo, in 2019. (illustration image)
To modernize its police, Madagascar calls on Israel. The Jewish state has just supplied arms to the police officers of the Big Island, confirm the Malagasy authorities, who wish to strengthen the maintenance of order in urban areas.
Assault rifles, handguns and machine guns provided by Israel, the police of Madagascar is finally equipped with new armament, recognizes Lalatiana Rakotondrazafy, the spokeswoman for the government.
« The national police has never benefited from weapon endowments, it has always inherited weapons which the army did not need. The urban security situation still needs to be strengthened. It is really with an objective of security in urban areas that the decision was taken to equip the national police with weapons. »
With 22 new regional police directorates, 30 new police stations and this new arsenal, the volume of which is not specified, nor whether it is a gift from Israel, the authorities intend not only to better ensure maintaining order but also, according to researcher Olivier Vallée, rebalancing the security forces in the country.
« This is with the aim, in my opinion, of re-equipping the police, but also of taking it back in hand and making it a force which is an alternative to the gendarmerie, on which, after the trial which has just taken place on the coup attempt, the President of the Republic no longer has absolute confidence. »
Israel had already supplied weapons to the Malagasy military. Israeli-Malagasy police cooperation is therefore a new step, encouraged by Foreign Minister Patrick Rajoelina. Which stretches a little more, according to the researcher, Franco-Malagasy cooperation in this area.