Anti-government protesters in Madagascar called for fresh demonstrations and a general strike on Wednesday, seeking to force President Andry Rajoelina to step down, following nearly a week of action by the youth-led movement.
Inspired by “Gen Z” protests in Indonesia and Nepal, the youth-led movement has taken aim at ingrained misgovernance, fuelled by anger over repeated water and power cuts across the poor Indian Ocean nation. (Photo by RIJASOLO / AFP)
Police had cordoned off the centre of the capital Antananarivo, AFP journalists saw, although life had mostly returned to normal in the rest of the city.
Near daily protests began in Antananarivo on Thursday and spread to other cities across the Indian Ocean nation of almost 32 million people.
Despite Rajoelina sacking his government on Monday in a bid to quell the unrest, anger over misgovernance and water and power cuts was intensified by a heavy crackdown on protesters, which has left at least 22 dead and more than a hundred injured, according to the UN.
The government has rejected the tally as unverified and “based on rumours or misinformation”.
“The dismissal of the government is not enough for us,” a spokesperson for the “Gen Z” movement leading the protests told AFP Tuesday.
“We demand the resignation of the president and the cleaning up of the National Assembly,” said the protester, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.
Another anonymous demonstrator told AFP that “living conditions of the Malagasy people are deteriorating and getting worse every day”.
Rajoelina “has been in power for 16 years, but nothing has changed”, he said.
Rajoelina, 51, first came to power in 2009 following a coup sparked by an uprising, which ousted former president Marc Ravalomanana.
After not contesting the 2013 election due to international pressure, Rajoelina was voted back into office in 2018 and re-elected in 2023 in contested polls boycotted by the opposition.
– Pope ‘saddened’ –
More than 10,000 people demonstrated and clashed with police in central Antananarivo Tuesday, according to a security source, where protesters were once again called to convene on Wednesday.
On social media, the Gen Z movement called for the dissolution of the Senate, the Constitutional Court and the electoral commission, as well as for businessman Mamy Ravatomanga, reportedly Rajoelina’s main financial backer, to be put on trial.
“Trade unions from the public sector are called to join a general strike,” the movement said.
Pope Leon XIV on Wednesday said he was “saddened by the news coming from Madagascar” and called for “the promotion of justice and the common good”.
Madagascar has seen a series of political crises since its independence from France in 1960.
The country ranks among the world’s poorest but is the leading producer of vanilla and has natural resources in farming, forestry, fishing and minerals.
