Hundreds of people demonstrated in Madagascar‘s capital, Antananarivo, on Monday — the 12th day of a youth-led protest movement that has plunged the country into political crisis.
Near-daily protests that started on September 25 against persistent water and power cuts in the Indian Ocean island have grown into an anti-government movement calling for President Andry Rajoelina to resign.
Rajoelina sacked his government on September 29 in an attempt to placate public anger but this has not satisfied the demonstrators.
University students and local residents gathered near the University of Ankatso on the outskirts of the capital on Monday before marching towards the city centre, where they were stopped by a security force barricade, AFP reporters said.
“The future of this country depends on me, on you, on all of us,” one of the protest leaders told the crowd of several hundred people, urging them not to allow the movement to lose momentum.
The Ankatso district is the birthplace of the 1972 revolt that led to the ousting of the first president of the poverty-stricken island, Philibert Tsiranana.
“We can clearly see that democracy in Madagascar is not respected at all,” said another protest leader.
“They are even destroying it with brutality,” he said.
He was referring to a United Nations statement last week that at least 22 people had been killed in the protests and more than 100 wounded, a figure rejected by the authorities.
The UN also condemned what it called a heavy-handed response by security forces, including the use of live ammunition.
On Saturday, police fired volleys of teargas to disperse hundreds of protesters who had gathered on the shores of the capital’s Lake Anosy.
They later alleged their response was provoked by the crowd’s behaviour.
Local media reported that there was also a protest on Monday in the southern city of Toliara, where demonstrators burned tyres.
Inspired by similar movements in Bangladesh, Nepal and Indonesia, the protests are led by an online movement known as Gen Z Mada.
Nearly three quarters of Madagascar’s population of 32 million were living below the poverty line in 2022, according to the World Bank.
