ANTANANARIVO, April 17: Gunmen assassinated a Madagascan general in his hospital bed after he was wounded in the first firefight between soldiers since the island’s leadership crisis began in January, hospital sources said on Wednesday.

The latest violence came as African leaders held separate meetings in Senegal with embattled Madagascan President Didier Ratsiraka and self-declared ruler Marc Ravalomanana, hoping to staunch worsening bloodshed on the giant Indian Ocean isle.

Three masked assassins shot General Raymond Andrianaivo seven times in a hospital ward in the town of Fianarantsoa, where he was being treated after being shot in a firefight on Tuesday between two military convoys, the sources said.

Witnesses said it was unclear why members of Andrianaivo’s convoy exchanged fire with soldiers from a second group of military vehicles which had been sent to help Andrianiavo’s men. One of Andrianaivo’s men, Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-Baptiste Rasolofo, was killed in the firefight, witnesses said.

The army on the island of 15 million is divided between supporters of Ratsiraka, a former admiral, and Ravalomanana, a millionaire mayor who accuses the government of rigging December 16 polls.

Analysts have warned the island risks sinking into deeper bloodshed if members of the armed forces turn their guns on each other. The last time members of the armed forces clashed was in 1975.—Reuters