Kazakhstan: The country’s authoritarian leader on Friday said that he has ordered security forces to “fire without warning”, amid a violent crackdown on anti-government protests.
Protests had erupted over surging fuel prices and escalated into an uprising against corruption.
Violent clashes between protesters and security forces left dozens of demonstrators and forces killed.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said, “20,000 bandits” had attacked the main city of Almaty, the epicentre of protests sparked by a fuel price hike and vowed to destroy them,”
The interior ministry says 26 “armed criminals” and 18 security officers have been killed so far in the unrest.