MADAGASCAR’S new military ruler, Michael Randrianirina, announced on Wednesday, October 15, that he would soon be sworn in as president, following a coup that ousted President Andry Rajoelina.
Rajoelina, who was impeached by lawmakers on Tuesday, with 130 yes votes to one blank ballot after fleeing the country over the weekend, has denounced the coup and vowed not to step down, even as Gen Z-led protests and mass defections within the security forces intensify calls for his resignation.
The ICIR reported that Rajoelina announced on Sunday that “an attempted illegal and forcible seizure of power” was in progress in the country after administrative and technical officers joined thousands of protesters in the city centre on Saturday in a major shift in the Gen Z anti-government protest movement that began last month.
Rajoelina’s office said he denounced all efforts to destabilise the country and called for “dialogue to resolve the crisis.
Randrianirina earlier announced that the military had seized control of the government and dissolved all state institutions, except for the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament.
“We will be sworn in soon,” the army colonel said during a press briefing on Wednesday, a day after the High Constitutional Court invited him to assume the presidency of the former French colony.
Randrianirina announced on Tuesday that a military-led committee would govern the country for up to two years alongside a transitional administration before holding new elections.
Randrianirina, a former commander of the elite Corps d’administration des personnels et des services administratifs et techniques (CAPSAT) army unit that was instrumental in the 2009 coup that brought Rajoelina to power, broke ranks with him last week and urged soldiers not to open fire on protesters.
However, in reaction to the military takeover, the African Union has suspended the island nation from all its activities and membership.
A spokesperson for the African Union told Reuters on Wednesday that Madagascar had been suspended with immediate effect following the coup, though no additional details were provided.
The suspension by the 55-member bloc holds significant political weight and could further isolate the country’s new leadership.
“The rule of law must prevail over the rule of force. Our approach is grounded in law and dialogue,” the African Union Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf said at a bloc meeting earlier on Wednesday.
Security sources told Reuters that Rajoelina fled Madagascar on Sunday aboard a French military aircraft, claiming that his life was in danger and is now believed to be in Dubai, according to three diplomatic and opposition sources.
The ICIR reported that the 51-year-old president first came to power in 2009 through a coup fueled by youth-led protests, becoming the world’s youngest head of state at 34, but his pledges to improve living standards and eliminate corruption remained unfulfilled.
Madagascar, with an average age of under 20 and a population of about 30 million, has roughly three-quarters of its people living in poverty.
The World Bank reports that between independence in 1960 and 2020, the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita declined by 45 per cent.
In addition to the CAPSAT unit, both the paramilitary gendarmerie and the police have also withdrawn their support for Rajoelina.
The protests, inspired by Gen Z-led movements in Kenya and Nepal, initially erupted over water and electricity shortages but have since intensified, with demonstrators demanding President Rajoelina’s resignation, an apology for the violence against protesters, and the dissolution of both the Senate and the electoral commission.
Thousands of people gathered in Antananarivo on Sunday to protest against the government and honour a fallen CAPSAT soldier, whom the army unit claimed was killed by the gendarmerie on Saturday.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.