Madagascar military leader claims Presidency after coup

Madagascar’s military coup leader said Wednesday that he is “taking the position of president” in an interview with The Associated Press at his barracks.

Col. Michael Randrianirina, who led a rebellion by soldiers that ousted President Andry Rajoelina, said he expects to be sworn in as the Indian Ocean country’s new leader in the next few days.

Randrianirina announced Tuesday that the armed forces were taking power in Madagascar, capping weeks of protests against Rajoelina and his government by mainly youth groups.

He said he is taking the role as head of state after the country’s High Constitutional Court invited him to do so in the absence of Rajoelina, who fled Madagascar following the uprising.

“There must be an oath-taking" to make his position official, Randrianirina said.

The protests reached a turning point on Saturday when Randrianirina and soldiers from his elite CAPSAT military unit rebelled against Rajoelina and joined demonstrations calling for the president to step down, forcing Rajoelina to flee.

“We had to take responsibility yesterday because there is nothing left in the country, no president, no president in the senate, no government,” Randrianirina said.

Rajoelina, who has been president since 2018, said he had fled to a safe place in fear for his life after the rebellion by Randrianirina’s soldiers. He has rejected the military takeover as an illegal coup attempt by a rebel faction.

Randrianirina said the new military leadership would quickly appoint a new prime minister who would form a government, but didn’t give an exact time frame for that to happen.

“What I can say is that we are already accelerating it so that the crisis in the country does not last forever,” the colonel said.

Madagascans have seen their country roiled by several coups and attempted coups since gaining independence from France in 1960. The Indian Ocean island has also struggled with high levels of poverty ever since.

A 2009 military-led coup brought Rajoelina to power as a transitional leader, when the president had cast himself as a champion of the youth.

There was no significant immediate reaction to the takeover by the international community or the African Union, which had called an emergency meeting for its security council on Tuesday.

Some analysts have described the weekslong youth uprising in Madagascar as an expression of grievances over government failures and condemned the military takeover.

“Gen-Zers in Madagascar have been on the streets of the country protesting the lack of essential services, especially water and electricity, and the negative impact on their lives for almost a month,” said Olufemi Taiwo, professor of Africana studies at Cornell University. “This is a civil society uprising and its resolution should not involve the military.”

He called for the African Union to condemn another coup that Africa “does not need,” adding that no country should recognise the new military leadership.