A second day of unrest in the island nation of Comoros on Thursday left one person dead and at least six others injured according to The Associated Press and health officials.
The protests came after current President Azali Assoumani was declared the winner in the presidential election held over the weekend. The results were denounced by the country's opposition parties as fraudulent.
The announcement late Tuesday that Assoumani had won his fourth term triggered violent protests that started Wednesday when a government minister's house was set on fire and a car at the home of another minister was burned. Several roads in and around the capital, Moroni, were barricaded by protesters who burned tires as riot police clashed with the demonstrators.
Reuters said the army had fired tear gas on Wednesday to disperse protesters in Moroni, the capital of Comoros, an Indian Ocean archipelago of islands with a population of about 800,000. The interior ministry announced a nighttime curfew throughout the country on Wednesday, but protesters were still on the streets in the north of Moroni in the early hours of Thursday.
A government spokesperson blamed the protests on supporters of losing candidates.
"These are things that happen here and elsewhere, especially when we are beaten and we contest the results," government spokesperson Houmed Msaidie told Reuters.
He said several demonstrators had been arrested. At least four people told Reuters on Thursday that they had trouble connecting to the internet to use social media platforms because of service disruptions.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called for calm and appealed to authorities to practice restraint in the wake of protests.
Assoumani first came to power through a coup in 1999. He stepped down in 2002 and then won elections 14 years later. Constitutional reforms in 2018 removed a requirement that the presidency rotate among its three main islands every five years, allowing Assoumani to seek re-election in 2019.
He won 62.97% of the vote in the latest election, according to the National Electoral Commission, reported Reuters.
Assoumani beat five other candidates in the election. His opponents have said the election was tainted by voter fraud, alleging instances of ballot stuffing and of voting ending before the official closing time.
The government has denied those accusations.
