Kazakhstan: state of emergency after protesters storm, torch public buildings amid fuel price rise; president sacks cabinet

President declares state of emergency and sacks cabinet; 190 people seek medical help, including more than 130 police officers

Protests in the Central Asian nation have spread following sharp increase in liquefied petroleum gas prices

3-MIN READ3-MIN

Smoke rises from the city hall building during a protest in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday. There are reports that protesters angry about rising fuel prices broke into the mayor’s office in the country’s largest city and flames were seen coming from inside. Kazakh news site Zakon said many demonstrators who converged on the building carried clubs and shields. Photo: AP

Published: 10:17am, 5 Jan 2022Updated: 10:42pm, 5 Jan 2022

Kazakhstan declared emergencies in the capital, main city and provinces on Wednesday after demonstrators stormed and torched public buildings, the worst unrest for more than a decade in the tightly controlled country.

The Cabinet resigned, but that failed to quell the anger of the demonstrators, who have taken to the streets in response to a fuel price increase from the start of the new year.

Though the unrest was triggered by the price rise, there were signs of broader political demands in a country still under the shadow of three decades of one-man rule.

Nursultan Nazarbayev, 81, took office as president of the former Soviet republic in 1990 and only stepped down in 2019. He retained authority as ruling party boss and head of a powerful security council.

People on the streets of Almaty, Kazakhstan, during a protest over a hike in energy prices. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has declared a state of emergency. Photo: EPA-EFE

An Instagram live stream by a Kazakh blogger showed a fire blazing in the mayor’s office of the nation’s biggest city, Almaty, on Wednesday, and gunshots could be heard nearby.

The building was surrounded by protesters who appeared to have broken through security forces’ cordons even though the latter deployed stun grenades whose explosions could be heard throughout the city centre.