Burning barricades, burned or looted stores and “ thugs on motorcycles »: the situation remained tense on Friday October 11 in Martinique, a French island in the Antilles, despite the establishment of a curfew, against a backdrop of protests against the high cost of living. The prefecture announced a ban on demonstrations and gatherings until Monday October 14.
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This Friday, October 11 in the morning, Fort-de-France airport reopened with the landing of a first flight from the Dominican Republic shortly after 10 a.m. local time (4 p.m. in Paris), after having had to close the day before, in due to the intrusion on the tracks of a hundred demonstrators. Eight people were arrested following this invasion, AFP learned from a police source.
Previously, all night from Thursday October 10 to Friday October 11, the police tried to contain the rioters who had erected dozens of dams across the island. Following these events, thirty-two people were arrested, according to a source at the prefecture, and twelve police officers were slightly injured. Some 150 vehicles burned, including those of a rental company, and 14 commercial premises burned.
“ Motorcycle thugs »
Heart of the clashes, the few kilometers of highway separating Le Lamentin from Fort-de-France, on which “ around sixty thugs on motorbikes », According to the source at the prefecture. It was on this road that two people on a motorbike died instantly on Thursday evening who were traveling in the wrong direction without a helmet and who collided with a car. During the night from Wednesday to Thursday, a 20-year-old man died during the looting of a shopping center and another, aged 30, was “ seriously injured by gunshot », According to a police source.
Already closed on Thursday, schools remained closed on October 11, “ given the uncertainty of the current social context and as a precautionary principle », According to the rectorate. The movement against the high cost of livinga recurring theme in overseas territories, was launched at the beginning of September by the RPPRAC, which demands an alignment of the prices of food products with France, 40% more expensive in Martinique. More than one in four Martinicans (27%) lives below the poverty line, almost twice the rate in mainland France (14.4%), according to 2020 figures.
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