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The 1968 Mauritian riots refers to a number of violent clashes that occurred in the Port Louis neighbourhoods of Bell Village, Roche Bois, St. Coix Cité Martial and Plaine Verte in Mauritius over a period of ten days, six weeks before the country's declaration of independence on 12 March 1968. The riot was the result of communal conflict between Creoles and Indo-Mauritian Muslims, and had its roots in gang warfare and concerns arising from the country's future following independence.^[1]

Riots

Political tension was high at the time due to uncertainty about the future political situation in the country after independence. About half of the population was against independence due to concerns that they might lose out in the new government.^[2][3]

The army viewed the riot as being the result of street gang rivalries between the ‘Istanbul’ Muslim gang and the rival ‘Texas’ Creole gang in Port Louis that had expanded and been exacerbated by political uncertainty due to the coming decoration of independence.^[4] The gang clashes led to the deaths of a Muslim and a Christian which sparked a spiral of violence in the communities.^[4]

Order was restored by a company of the King's Shropshire Light Infantry called in from Singapore after a state of emergency was declared by the British authorities on 22 January 1968 and lasted for ten days.^[2][5] In their effort to restore order the British deployed three Bell H-13 Sioux helicopters and around 150 troops.^[3] Violence was contained to the urban areas of Port Louis and did not spread to the rest of the island.^[3]