1 of 3 men lynched in Madagascar ‘had Italian passport’

A European lynched by a mob in Madagascar, who also killed a French citizen and a local man, had an Italian passport, district chief Malaza Ramanamahafahy told AFP on Friday.

The three men were killed and burnt in a day-long rampage on Thursday on the tourist island of Nosy Be by residents who suspected them of murdering a young boy for his organs.

“I saw his passport, he has Italian citizenship,” Ramanamahafahy said, adding the man’s visa had expired. Nosy Be lies just off the northern tip of the vast Indian Ocean island.

He could not confirm whether the man also held French citizenship, as indicated by paramilitary police on Thursday.

“Rioters launched a manhunt and killed the Europeans,” in the early hours of Thursday morning after a missing eight-year-old was reportedly found dead, gendarmerie commander Guy Bobin Randriamaro told AFP.

Local police commissioner Honoya Tilahizandry said the men “were killed and burnt on Ambatoloaka beach”, a popular palm-fringed stand ringed by bars and hotels.

Gory pictures taken after the lynching showed a mound of ash, wood and iron bars, with a torso and pair of charred legs the only recognisable remains.

“They suspected the two foreigners of being behind the murder and trafficking human organs,” said the gendarmerie’s Randriamaro.

Thrown onto a fire

The two men “confessed under torture to having trafficked organs”, he added.

Hours later in a nearby suburb, a Malagasy was also killed, as mobs of hundreds of men roamed the streets setting fires.

According to an AFP correspondent, the victim was dragged from a vehicle and his body thrown onto a fire.

In Paris, foreign ministry spokesperson Philippe Lalliot said “two foreigners have died and we have confirmation that at least one of them is French”.

The Frenchman had a 60-day tourism visa and his passport indicated he was a frequent visitor to the island nation.

The island – a tourist magnet with its sandy white beaches – was calm on Friday, despite rumours the angry mob was hunting for a fourth man.

Ramanamahafahy said an interministerial delegation had arrived on the island for a meeting with local leaders before visiting the family of the dead child as well as “two people shot dead”.

Until now authorities had confirmed only one person had been shot dead when paramilitary police opened fire on protesters on Wednesday night.

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