Madagascar Military Seizes Power Following Impeachment of President Rajoelina

An elite military unit in Madagascar announced it had seized control of the government on Tuesday, hours after the national assembly voted to impeach President Andry Rajoelina for desertion of duty. The 51-year-old president, who has faced weeks of mass anti-government protests, reportedly went into hiding following the vote.

Colonel Michael Randrianirina, head of the elite CAPSAT military unit, told AFP, “We have taken power,” after reading a statement at a government building in Antananarivo, the capital. He said the military would form a committee composed of officers from the army, gendarmerie, and national police to oversee the transition. “Perhaps in time it will include senior civilian advisers. It is this committee that will carry out the work of the presidency,” Randrianirina said, adding that a civilian government would be established “after a few days.”

CAPSAT, the same unit that played a key role in the 2009 coup which first brought Rajoelina to power, once again stands at the center of Madagascar’s political upheaval.

The military’s announcement came just minutes after the lower house of parliament voted overwhelmingly—130 in favor out of 163 members—to remove Rajoelina from office, surpassing the two-thirds majority required by the constitution. The presidency quickly dismissed the session as “devoid of any legal basis,” pointing out that Rajoelina had already dissolved the national assembly by decree in an attempt to block the impeachment. The High Constitutional Court must still validate the result.

Rajoelina, a former mayor of Antananarivo, said late Monday that he was in a “safe space” following what he described as attempts on his life. His whereabouts remain unknown.

The political crisis has been building since late September, when nationwide protests erupted against the president’s leadership. Over the weekend, mutinous soldiers and members of the security forces—including CAPSAT—joined demonstrators demanding Rajoelina’s resignation. Crowds have filled the streets of Antananarivo singing national songs and honoring victims of the unrest, signaling a decisive shift in the island nation’s volatile political landscape.