Mauritius imposed a curfew on 13 October 2026 after a night of unrest sparked by the police shooting of a 27-year-old woman, Elodie Thomas. Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam announced restrictions from 8:30 pm to 6 am local time.
According to Al Jazeera, Thomas was shot while travelling home from work in a van in an area south of the capital, Port Louis. She underwent successful surgery to remove a bullet. A police sergeant has been charged in connection with the shooting, the report said. Wikipedia’s account of the riots, which is based on local reports, says surgeons from India arrived to treat her.
Protesters burned tyres and blocked roads in response to the shooting overnight on Monday into Tuesday. The Education Ministry closed some schools on Tuesday because of the unrest. Reports from other outlets said that police stations were attacked and that there was looting at supermarkets, although Al Jazeera did not give arrest or injury figures, and Delima News has not confirmed those details independently.
Ramgoolam addressed the nation on Tuesday. His office said that the situation had returned to normal after the overnight unrest, and the cabinet was scheduled to meet on Wednesday to assess the position. The curfew runs overnight, from 8:30 pm to 6 am, and Al Jazeera said it affects Port Louis and major population centres.
The protests started earlier than the shooting. Wikipedia reports that demonstrations began on 7 October in La Caverne-Phoenix, in Vacoas-Phoenix, over nationwide water shortages and rising living costs, and then turned into rioting after the shooting. On 12 October, protesters burned a police station in the town of Rose-Hill and blockaded roads across the country. By 13 October, the authorities said that order had been restored, but the curfew was announced the same day as a precaution.
The unrest is unusual for Mauritius, a popular island tourist destination in the Indian Ocean. Wikipedia describes it as the worst mass rioting since the country’s 1999 riots. Public disturbances of this size are rare there, which is why the government moved quickly with a curfew and school closures.
Other outlets reported arrests during the unrest, with one headline citing about ten, but Delima News has not been able to confirm a number from the primary reports it reviewed. The curfew runs from Tuesday evening until Wednesday morning, which fits the cabinet meeting planned for Wednesday to assess the situation.
Several details remain unclear. The sources reviewed give different dates for the shooting, with one saying it happened on Monday and another on 9 October, so Delima News has not given a date. Neither source gave numbers of arrests, injured officers or damage costs. The charge against the police sergeant is a significant step because public anger focused on the question of accountability, and the next stage of the case will be watched closely. Delima News will follow the cabinet’s decisions and any change to the curfew. The Education Ministry has not said, in the reports reviewed here, when the schools closed on Tuesday will reopen, and the government has not published figures for injured officers or damaged property.
Image: A view of Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius (file photo, not from the events described). Photo: Ifeatu Nnaobi / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
