ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (AP) – An attempted coup is underway on an Indian Ocean island. madagascarthe country’s president said on Sunday, a day after he was joined by members of the army’s elite troops. Youth-led protests against the government He then called on the president to resign.
Madagascar shaken by three weeks of massive disaster Serious civil unrest that occurs once every few years in the country. The protests are led by a group calling themselves “Gen Z Madagascar.” The United Nations says the demonstrations are At least 22 people were killed and dozens injured. The government disputes this figure.
President Andriy Rajoelina’s office said in a statement on Sunday that it wanted to inform the nation and the international community that an “illegal and armed attempt to seize power” had “begun”.
“Given the critical gravity of this situation, the President of the Republic… strongly condemns this destabilizing attempt and calls on all citizens to unite in defense of constitutional order and national sovereignty,” Rajoelina’s office said.
Although the statement did not say who was trying to overthrow the government, elite members of the CAPSAT military unit joined youth-led protests against Rajoelina on Saturday, calling for the resignation of the president and other government officials.
“Do we call this a coup? We don’t know yet,” Col. Michael Landrianilina of the CAPSAT unit, addressing the crowd from an armored vehicle, said Saturday.
Saturday’s protests were the largest since the riots began.
Madagascar is a large island off the east coast of Africa with a population of 31 million people. Since gaining independence from France in 1960, several leaders have been ousted in coups d’état. Rajoelina himself first came to power as leader of a transitional government after a military-backed coup in 2009.
The uprising by CAPSAT forces played a pivotal role in the 2009 coup that brought Rajoelina to power. He was elected president in 2018 and re-elected in 2023, when the opposition boycotted the vote.
Youth-led protests against service failures and allegations of government corruption and nepotism first erupted on September 25. The protests began over power outages and water outages, but dissatisfaction with the government and government leadership snowballed. Rajoelina.
Demonstrators have raised a range of issues, including poverty, the cost of living, access to higher education, and allegations of corruption and embezzlement of public funds by government officials, their families and associates.
Civil society organizations and trade unions also participated in the protests, resulting in Banned from going out at night It is enforced in the capital Antananarivo and other major cities.
Rajoelina tried to appease the protesters by dismissing the entire government, including the prime minister, on September 29, but appointed a military general as the new prime minister, but the protesters remained unyielding.
The Gen Z protesters who sparked the uprising have their own website, Facebook page, and other social media channels, as well as a GoFundMe page to raise money. They operate through the internet and say they are inspired by: Other protests that toppled governments in Nepal and Sri Lanka.
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Imlay reported from Cape Town, South Africa.
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AP Africa News: https://apnews.com/hub/Africa
