...During the October 2023 protests, three local protestors were shot dead by state police forces on the road to Mandena where the Rio Tinto/ QMM mine site is located. The protestors had reportedly been occupying a space on private land next to the road, where they were expressing their demand for a formal confirmation of a promised lifting of arrest warrants on the two leaders of the LuSud local association. The three dead included Mr Jean Salomon Andriamamonjy, Mr Damy, and Ms Françia, Rasolonirina, the latter a 45-year-old female domestic worker. QMM apparently only registers one of the losses of life.

The killings are unprecedented and signal a serious escalation of violence around the QMM mine. As joint owners, QMM and the Malagasy Government are jointly and severally responsible for each other’s’ actions around the mine operation. The use of live ammunition and the order to fire upon and shoot dead three protestors have not been subject to an independent inquiry or accountability process and appears to be extrajudicial killing. There was also a highly unusual media blackout of these events in the national press and TV. QMM risks to be perceived as complicit in these events. In particular, the lack of public inquiry leaves too many questions unanswered and denies justice or remedy for the families of the bereaved.

The July 2023 arrests and the October 2023 killing of three protestors are clearly related to QMM operations. Rio Tinto is committed to the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights and it is hard to understand how the use of armed state security forces against QMM protestors is in keeping with that Code or adheres to UNGP23. Instead of owning its responsibilities, the company has characterised the LuSud conflict as related to the state. It has capitalised on this optic in a year when national elections were declared an “institutional coup” by opposition candidates, whose peaceful marches were fired on by military with tear gas and rubber bullets. The state has been perceived as complicit in previous conflict and arrests around QMM, for example during 2021 protests concerning water quality and fisherfolk livelihoods...