Sakaraha is a rural municipality in

Atsimo-Andrefana Atsimo-Andrefana (South West) is a region of Madagascar. It borders Menabe in north, Amoron'i Mania and Haute Matsiatra in northeast, Ihorombe and Anosy in east and Androy in southeast. The capital is Toliara and the population was 1,799,088 i ...

Region, south-western

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

. It has a population of 31,183 in 2018. Sakaraha 01

Geography

Sakaraha is situated along route nationale No. 7 ( Tuléar-

Fianarantsoa Fianarantsoa is a city (commune urbaine) in south central Madagascar, and is the capital of Haute Matsiatra Region. History It was built in the early 19th century by the Merina as the administrative capital for the newly conquered Betsileo kin ...

) at 134 km from Tuléar, 64 km from

Andranovory Andranovory is a town and commune () in Madagascar. It belongs to the district of Toliara II, which is a part of Atsimo-Andrefana Region. The population of the commune was estimated to be approximately 31,000 in 2001 commune census. Primary and ...

and 84 km from

Ilakaka Ilakaka is a small town in Ihorombe Region in the south western part of Madagascar. In the early 1990s there were only about 40 residents in the area. After the discovery of one of Earth's largest known alluvial sapphire deposits in the valley ...

. It is situated at the Zombitse-Vohibasia National Park.

Economy

Mining: there are

sapphire Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide () with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, cobalt, lead, chromium, vanadium, magnesium, boron, and silicon. The name ''sapphire ...

s found in the town of Sakaraha. Natural gas was discovered near Sakaraha by Madagascar Southern Petroleum Company (MSCP) in 2011. There are also some oil deposits near Sakaraha but there is no commercial exploration. On 31 January 2007, Saudi terrorist

Mohammed Jamal Khalifa Mohammed Jamal Khalifa () (1 February 1957 – 31 January 2007) was a Saudi people, Saudi businessman from Jeddah who married one of Osama bin Laden's sisters. He was accused of funding terror plots and groups in the Philippines in the 1990s wh ...

was murdered by 25 to 30 armed men while visiting a gemstone mine he owned in Sakamilko, near the town of Sakaraha. He had recently called in local police to evict people who had been working the gem mine in his absence. Though all his belongings had been stolen there is some conjecture that the death was politically motivated. Khalifa's family came to believe that he was assassinated by operators from the Joint Special Operations Command."Gems, al-Qaida and Murder: Mystery over killing of Osama Bin Laden's friend" ''The Guardian'' World news section
accessed on 31 January 2007

References

Populated places in Atsimo-Andrefana Sapphire mines in Madagascar {{AtsimoAndrefana-geo-stub