Tsiribihina River boat trip attack

Any news on this?

I understand that we are just one example, so that doesn't say much about general safety, but we recently (Oct 2014) did this Tsiribihina river trip and felt perfectly safe throughout. Actually, we encountered nothing but friendly, happy and welcoming people. Maybe we were lucky, maybe we had a good guide and boatsmen setting camp on safe places.

I'm interested to hear more on this report too, because it would be a pity if people don't go anymore.

Hi Richard,
We are in touch with the people involved and are now waiting back on more details.
Regards,
Matt
Destination Editor, sub-Saharan Africa

Thanks for the feedback Philipscholte,
We are currently waiting to hear more details from those involved. We've been told that the incident happened on the night of 2 October, and that the group (two tourists, guide and boatman) were by attacked by four people while camping on the riverbank.
When we have more details we will post them here.
Regards,
Matt
Destination Editor, sub-Saharan Africa

I am not surprised by this attack as I have reported this about 6 months ago. also read something to this about two months ago. Now as I have searched the internet for news reports this has just popped up as of today
.INSECURITY: The tourists and their guides are often victims of aggression towards Tsiribihina. The Guides Association calls for the state to be taken appropriate action..]

[http://www.orange.mg/.] This is a report in French butt he English translation is above.

What is a bit disturbing is that the guide association is aware of this but guides do not make the tourists aware of the danger as Philipscholte has declared that his tour guide did not make him aware of the danger. Now that is something to consider.

Dear Tsarabe,
Thank you for the added information. If guides are not telling clients of the risks, it is an even larger issue.
Kind regards,
Matt
Destination Editor, sub-Saharan Africa

I have just returned from Madagascar and was in Tsingy de Bemaraha park when this attacked happened, having travelled down the river a few days before. All the guides were talking about it as this obviously puts their jobs at risk. From what they were saying the tourists weren't camping at the usual spot as the tourists had felt this was too close to the village and wanted to stay somewhere more remote. The guides had initially argued against this, but I guess they followed the principle of the client is always right and gave in.

When we started our boat journey I noticed a rifle being taken on board and asked my guide about this. He said it was to shoot ducks - something that certainly never happened during our trip. I had just spent 6 weeks in Andavadoaka and there had been mollasoo (not sure how its spelt - cattle thieves) attacks just south of us, so I did wonder if that was what the rifle was for. Later the guides in Tsingy Park admitted this was the case, but the river guides definitely did not discuss this possibility with us, and I'm sure the tourists who were attacked were not warned of the possible consequences of privacy.

Having said this, camping outside the villages felt very safe and at no point during my 3 months in Madagascar did I feel threatened or unsafe in anyway. Hopefully this is an isolated attack and tourists are not put off visiting this amazing country. With a little commonsense and following the advice of guides it is far safer than any other African country I have visited or lived in.

We have been in touch with the people involved in the incident and these are their details of the attack.

• The attack happened on the second day of their trip (the first day they had driven from Tana to Miandrivazo). The river trip started on the second day, an hour’s drive from Miandrivazo.
• There were seven people in the group: two boatmen per pirogue, the guide and the two visitors.
• The camp where the attack occurred was on the river bank in the neighbourhood of Berevo. The visitors’ tents were 75m from temporary huts that villagers used to sell food and drinks to passing tourists. On the other side of the huts was another group of tourists (3 tents, 5-6 tourists).
• The attack happened around 10-10.30 pm on October 2nd. The four attackers beat up the guide and boatmen first before attacking the tourists’ tent. Both tourists were clubbed with sticks and one had their hand seriously cut by a sharp object (he ended up losing two fingers and a portion of his hand).
• After the attackers left, the guide went to look for help as the emergency number was not working. He said the police were not eager to come down then, but they said they would send a boat the following day.
• The police arrived the next morning. They mentioned they were also informed of an assault that same evening a few hours paddling downstream from their camp, near the waterfalls.
• When contacted during the events, the owner of the rafting company assisted a lot from Morondava. He also informed the tourists’ consulate, who organised a good hospital for them in Tana (Espace Medical).
• The tourists said their console informed them that the pilot who flew them back to the capital had told them that he had flown back five similar cases recently.

Matt
Destination Editor, sub-Saharan Africa

Some information that might be interesting on this topic. A buddy of mine and me travelled the Tsiribihina 3 days, December 14-16, 2014. We chose not to book a tour in Tana or Antsirabe, but to travel ourselves by taxi brousse directly to Miandrivazo and organize the boat tour on the spot.

We learned that the boat tour guides in Miandrivazo have themselves organized in an association since 2002. It organizes their whole business, not only the guides and the piroguiers, but also those who might contact you somewhere on the street or hotel. Somehow they seem to split the revenues and have rules who is the next in line to guide the next tourist group. We had the first contact to a piroguier who was on the same bus than us, but he was not allowed to guide us but had to give way to other members of the association. All of the guides and piroguiers were polite, open and honest, some english speaking.

We have heard of the incident in October, so we indirectly asked them about their situation to find out more. Astoundingly, the answers were quite straightforward. They said that there are tensions between the local guides (from Miandrivazo) and tour operators and guides from the cities (Tana and Antsirabe). The situation is, that the tour groups from Tana more or less overrun the river in peak season, with no contribution to the locals. (To understand the situation fully, the South-West of Mada is very poor, as the highlands are not. The wealth disparity between Antsirabe to Miandrivazo is significant , something like "developing world" to "3rd world".) They mentioned the October incident, but didn't say who they think that might be responsible.

I do NOT want to state any conclusions here. But the way they talked openly made me feel safe in the situation. Our guides didn't carry weapons of any kind. Our river trip went well, we started directly in Miandrivazo, 1st night at a small village at the entrance of the Gorges de Tsiribihina (not sure whether its the same village from the thread above), 2nd night on a sandbank before the entrance of the 2nd gorges. Overall it was a very nice and calm experience, fully recommendable, although sometimes extremely hot. PM me for any questions

C.