Operations against demonstrations continue – riots in Kazakhstan claim at least 164 lives – News

• 164 people were killed in serious unrest in Central Asia, Kazakhstan. This came on state television, citing the Ministry of Health.
• The authorities had earlier reported more than 40 dead, including at least 16 police officers and soldiers.
• According to official information, more than 2,200 people have been infected so far.

In the city of Almaty, severely shaken by unrest, 103 people are said to have died – including two children. Especially here, about 1,100 people asked for medical help, state television reported, citing the authorities.

Independent information is still sparse. So it is still not clear how many civilians were killed. This is due to the difficulty of the source situation: the authoritarian Kazakh authorities have repeatedly shut down the Internet in many places. The country also closed its borders to foreigners. In Almaty, cellular communication is constantly interrupted.

Unrest in the former Soviet republic, which borders China and Russia, has been going on for a week. President Kassim Shomart Tokayev on Friday ordered the police and army to shoot “without warning” protesters, whom he described as “terrorists” and “bandits”. The authoritarian authorities say the situation is now under control.

As the presidential office announced after another crisis meeting, operations against the demonstrators are continuing. “Measures are being taken to locate and arrest the terrorists,” he added. She added that so far, nearly 6000 people have been arrested, including many foreigners. Tokayev claimed that the demonstrators received support from abroad.