Comoros: curfew imposed after president’s disputed re-election sparks deadly protests

An overnight curfew has been imposed in the Comoros after post-election violence against President Azali Assoumani’s disputed re-election turned deadly on Thursday (18 January), with the first gunshot victims arriving in hospital and security forces battling stone-throwing protesters in the streets of the capital.
Reports of the first serious casualties emerged two days after the electoral authorities announced that Assoumani won a fourth five-year term with 62.97% of the vote, triggering violent clashes between soldiers and angry opposition supporters. The army fired tear gas to disperse protesters in the capital, Moroni, where the protestors were trying to block roads and streets, throwing stones at security forces, which in turn responded by driving them back to scatter and escape through alleys. The government in the East African island nation responded by imposing an overnight curfew on Wednesday (17 January).
The Comoros opposition has rejected the re-election of Assoumani — an ex-military officer turned civilian rulers who first came to power in a 1999 coup and who is widely accused of muzzling dissent and involvement in large-scale fraud — and demanded this week’s vote be annulled. Assoumani’s victory is expected to be confirmed by the Comoros’ supreme court at the weekend. Street protests are banned in Comoros, a country that has seen more than 20 coups and attempted coups in its short period post independence in 1975, and several arrests have been made.