Madagascar’s military has taken control. Here’s what we know

ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar — Madagascar’s military said Tuesday that it was taking control of the government, after weeks of deadly protests calling for the removal of President Andry Rajoelina, who appears to have left the country.

The military has suspended the constitution and dissolved all of Madagascar’s major institutions — including the highest court, the electoral commission and the Senate — but left in place the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament.

Demonstrations began in late September over the government’s failure to provide reliable water and electricity but later spread to cover a wide range of grievances. The protesters have drawn inspiration from Gen Z demonstrations that erupted recently in Nepal and Kenya.

The situation in Madagascar, an island in southern Africa off the coast of Mozambique, remains unstable. Here’s what we know so far.

Why are young people protesting?

Thousands of young people have been on the streets in Madagascar’s capital, Antananarivo, and other major cities since Sept. 25. They say that they’re fed up with official corruption and with the daily struggle to meet basic needs like water and electricity, especially as prices are rising.

The recent protests began last month when two Antananarivo City Council members were arrested before a planned demonstration against water and electricity cuts. Civil society groups and young people saw the arrests as an attempt to silence dissent.

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According to activists in Madagascar, this is the first time the country has seen a youth-led movement that has sustained mass protests in multiple cities. Protesters see Rajoelina as an ineffective leader who has failed to deliver on his promises to help them and have been calling for weeks for him to resign.

Gen Z Madagascar, a youth-led group that has been coordinating some of the protests, called for civil servants to join the demonstrations. The organization has drawn on the playbook of recent youth-led movements in Nepal, Indonesia and the Philippines, even using the same grinning skull symbol.

The frustration among young people in Madagascar is akin to challenges to governments elsewhere in Africa, in part because of the continent’s demography. Africa’s median age is 19, so young people are entering the workplace and the political process in large numbers.

How did the government respond?

Initially, security forces cracked down hard in an effort to control the protests. The United Nations said that at least 22 people had been killed and more than 100 injured, figures that officials in Madagascar have disputed.

On Sept. 29, Rajoelina dissolved the government and said he would fire his Cabinet, in an apparent effort to appease the protesters. But instead Rajoelina’s move seemed to deepen their resolve in calling for his resignation.

“He’s changed nothing,” Rovatanjoniaina Valisoa Tsimaniva, 21, a university student, said early this month. “It’s like everything he said was just a drunk man’s promises. And we’re sick of it.”

Some of Madagascar’s security forces began turning against Rajoelina on Saturday and joined the protesters.

But the president was defiant. He said in an address Monday that he had gone into hiding because of threats to his life, but he pledged to continue working to save the country.

On Tuesday, opposition lawmakers voted to impeach Rajoelina. He called the impeachment process unconstitutional and tried to stop it by dissolving the National Assembly.

The assembly went ahead with the vote, and the military announced that it would be taking charge of Madagascar’s government.

Who is in charge now?

A unit of the military said Tuesday that it would form a transitional government, to last for no more than two years. The transitional government is supposed to include civilians, and will arrange a referendum for a new constitution and new institutions.

Rajoelina first came to power through a coup in 2009. He lost power after a 2013 election and then won office again in 2018 and 2023. Many of Rajoelina’s opponents boycotted the election two years ago, accusing him of manipulating the race in his favor by using state security forces to intimidate voters and stacking the national election commission with his allies.

Since gaining independence from France in 1960, Madagascar, a country of nearly 32 million people, has struggled with political instability. Much of the population is poor, and the economy, which relies on agriculture, has been set back in recent years by a series of weather-related shocks.