The country marks a day of national mourning on Monday, but the exact toll of the violence remains unknown, the government having mentioned several “tens” dead and over a thousand injured.
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Nearly 8,000 people have been arrested after a week of violence in Kazakhstan, the government announced on Monday (January 10th). The Interior Ministry clarified that “7,989 individuals” were detained by his services, while the protest movement against power was violently repressed by the authorities. The country marks a day of national mourning on Monday, but the exact toll of the violence remains unknown, the government having mentioned several “tens” dead and over a thousand injured.
Internet access has been restored after days of blackouts in Almaty, the economic capital of this Central Asian country where the unrest has been the most violent. The city was won on Tuesday, January 4 by the protest movement, born in western Kazakhstan after a drastic increase in fuel prices. The protests were marked by an exchange of fire, the sacking of public buildings and the looting of businesses in the country’s main city.
These unrest, the worst since the independence of Kazakhstan after the fall of the USSR just 30 years ago, prompted President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to seek military support from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO ), piloted by Moscow. Russia has deployed troops to the Central Asian country as part of a multinational contingent from former Soviet republics. A meeting of heads of state of members of the organization, including Vladimir Putin, is scheduled for Monday January 10.