Mauritius closed schools in some parts of the country on Tuesday after a night of protests that began when a police officer shot a 27-year-old woman, the Ministry of Education said, and it has not said when classrooms will reopen.
The ministry announced the closures on Tuesday morning local time. It named no affected districts in the information reviewed by ATN, and said it would give an update later. Prime Minister’s Office officials said the situation had returned to normal and that all public sector services would operate as usual.
Protesters burned tires and blocked roads in parts of the island on Monday night, prompting police deployments. Authorities have not released arrest figures or any count of injuries from the unrest, and ATN found no report of deaths.
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The shooting itself happened Friday night. Élodie Thomas was traveling home from work in a van through a residential area south of the capital, Port Louis, when she was wounded. Health Minister Anil Bachoo said she underwent successful surgery to remove the bullet. One report on the case, whose account ATN could not verify, described her as being in critical condition after the shooting, which conflicts with the minister’s description.
A police sergeant has been provisionally charged in connection with the shooting, according to local media. The same reports gave no details on what led to the incident. Police have not commented on what happened, though they have said an investigation is under way.
One report on the case, citing a statement from the police press office on Saturday, said the van was moving along a road obstructed by objects when a shot was fired in its direction. According to that report, the sergeant was arrested, his firearm was secured, and he was provisionally charged with possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life. The report said police gave no reason for the shot and did not say whether the sergeant was acting on orders. The sergeant has not been publicly named, and ATN could not confirm that account against a police statement.
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The reasons the shooting set off protests are unclear, because officials have said little. What is on the record is the sequence: the shooting on Friday, a provisional charge over the weekend according to local media, street protests Monday night and the school closures Tuesday. No protest organizer has been identified in the material ATN reviewed, and no group has claimed responsibility for the road blockades.
Public unrest is rare in Mauritius, an Indian Ocean island nation lying roughly 2,000 kilometers off the southeastern coast of Africa with about 1.3 million people, known for tourism and a record of stable multiparty elections. The country has seen violence tied to police conduct before. In 1999, riots broke out across the capital after a popular reggae singer died in police custody, with demonstrators throwing firebombs at police stations and injuring about 30 officers, according to a newspaper account of the third day of disturbances.
Complaints against officers are handled in part by an independent body. The Independent Police Complaints Commission investigates allegations of misconduct against members of the Mauritius Police Force, including death in custody and police brutality. The commission has not commented on Friday’s shooting in the material ATN reviewed, and it is not clear whether it has opened its own inquiry alongside the police investigation.
For parents, the closures mean a disruption with no end date. The education ministry’s notice covered some parts of the country rather than the whole island, and it did not say whether students in affected areas would be asked to follow lessons remotely, or whether other schools might close if protests resume.
Officials have not said why schools were closed. They have not stated whether the closures were prompted by a specific threat, by blocked roads that kept staff or students from reaching classrooms, or as a precaution after Monday’s events.
Thomas was heading home from work when she was shot, according to the reporting ATN reviewed. One report described her as a part-time supermarket cashier, a detail ATN could not confirm. Her family has not made a public statement in the material reviewed, and no lawyer for the sergeant has been identified.
