As a result of the unrest in the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan, which lasted several days, the authorities have given concrete information on the number of dead and injured for the first time.
According to official information, at least 18 people have died in the riots in the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan since the end of last week.
This was announced by a representative of the Prosecutor General's Office, Abror Mamatov, on Monday.
According to the National Guard, there were also more than 240 injuries.
Of these, 94 were taken to hospitals.
Media reports spoke of significantly more fatalities and injuries.
However, this has not been officially confirmed.
According to the Reuters news agency, the National Guard arrested 516 people when the protests were broken up last Friday.
The protests broke out in the regional capital of Nukus in the west of the country at the end of last week.
They are directed against a planned constitutional reform in which the sovereignty of the Karakalpakstan region is no longer explicitly mentioned.
Mamatov spoke of "mass unrest."
President Mirzijoyev gives in
In the face of the protests, the President of the country of 35 million inhabitants, Shawkat Mirsiyoyev, has now given in.
The constitutional paragraphs on the sovereignty of Karakalpakstan should now remain unchanged.
Mirsiyoyev spoke of rioters who threw stones, set fires and attacked the police during "destructive actions".
In the authoritarian former Soviet republic, the government cracks down on all forms of criticism.
Although only about two million people live in Karakalpakstan on the Aral Sea, with 164,000 square kilometers the region covers almost 40 percent of the country's area and is twice the size of Austria.
The republic has its own parliament.
Karakalpak is an official language alongside Uzbek.
fek/dpa/Reuters
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