News Desk :
Madagascar’s president has been evacuated by French military plane after an elite army unit mutinied to join Gen Z youth protests calling for him to step down.
Andry Rajoelina complained that an attempted coup was under way in the Indian Ocean nation after the CAPSAT army unit urged fellow soldiers to disobey orders and instead side with demonstrators.
His evacuation followed a deal with Emmanuel Macron, France’s president, French radio RFI reported on Monday.
Crowds began gathering in the capital ahead of his scheduled speech, as rumours swirled that he would announce his resignation after three weeks of mass demonstrations, reports The Telegraph.
“We hope that he will apologise and genuinely announce his resignation,” law student Finaritra Manitra Andrianamelasoa, 24, told AFP.
“Afterwards, we can consider organising elections and determine who will be suitable to take the leadership role,” he said.
The former French colony has been shaken by three weeks of protest after demonstrations about electricity and water outages escalated into wider dissatisfaction with the government and Mr Rajoelina’s leadership.
The president had not been seen in public since last week and the public security minister had earlier said his whereabouts were currently unknown.
Similar protests under the banner of “Gen Z”, meaning those born between the mid-1990s and early 2010s, have swept Morocco, Nepal, Peru, Indonesia, Kenya and the Philippines in recent months in a wave of youthful dissent.
The anti-establishment protests have appeared to inspire each other and have mobilised over social media without obvious leaders. Protests have railed against a broad set of grievances including high inequality, rising costs, youth unemployment, corruption, nepotism and poor governance.
In Madagascar, officers supporting youth protesters had by Monday taken control of the paramilitary gendarmerie, Reuters reported.
Troops with the elite CAPSAT unit which helped Mr Rajoelina seize power in a 2009 coup, urged fellow soldiers to disobey orders and back the demonstrators.
Col Michael Randrianirina, an officer in the unit, said at the weekend it had “responded to the people’s call”.
Speaking to crowds from an armoured vehicle, he said the president, his new prime minister, the minister of the gendarmerie and the commander of the gendarmerie “must leave power. That’s all”.
“Do we call this a coup? I don’t know yet,” he said.
The president’s office said “an attempt to seize power illegally and by force” had been “initiated”.
A statement said the president “strongly condemns this attempt at destabilisation and calls upon all forces of the nation to unite in defence of constitutional order and national sovereignty”.
Mr Rajoelina had unsuccessfully attempted to appease protesters late last month by firing his entire government, including the prime minister.
Madagascar has had several leaders removed in coups since it gained independence from France in 1960.
Mr Rajoelina first came to prominence as the leader of a transitional government following a 2009 coup that forced then-President Marc Ravalomanana to flee the country and lose power.
Mr Rajoelina was elected president in 2018 and re-elected in 2023 in a vote boycotted by opposition parties.
The Foreign Office warned against all but essential travel to Madagascar, saying the capital, Antananarivo, “had seen significant incidents of violence, including looting, which has spread to other towns and cities”.
“The situation remains very fluid; we expect curfews to remain in place in Antananarivo and in other cities.”
