Madagascar president fires government after Gen Z protests

Madagascar's President Andry Rajoelina dissolved his government on Monday following days of deadly unrest which the United Nations says left at least 22 people dead.  

"I have decided to terminate the functions of the Prime Minister and the government," Rajoelina said in a televised national address.

He said that Prime Minister Christian Ntsay and other ministers would stay on an interim basis until a new government could be formed. He gave a three-day time frame to review proposals for a new prime minister.

"I understand the anger, the sadness, and the difficulties caused by power cuts and water supply problems," he said. "Your demands have been heard, and I apologize if there are members of the government who have not done the work that the people expected."

Rajoelina had already sacked the energy minister on Friday.

What are Madagascar's protests about?

Thousands of people, mostly young demonstrators, have poured onto the streets since Thursday in protest against chronic electricity and water cuts and widespread poverty.

Some demonstrators held signs reading "We want to live, not survive," a central slogan of the movement.

Madagascar, a large island off the east coast of southern Africa, ranks in the bottom ten of the UN's Human Development Index.

Three quarters of the island's 30 million people lived below the poverty line in 2022, according to the World Bank.

Just over a third, or 36% of Madagascar's population has access to electricity, but this is unreliable with daily hours-long outages.

The state-owned electric and water services utility, Jirama, normally posts the almost-daily outage schedules on Facebook. But on Thursday, the day the protests erupted, it suspended the group's activity for 36 days, including new posts and comments.

Protesters also call for Rajoelina's resignation

Earlier Monday, growing crowds marched through the capital Antananarivo, many dressed in black and chanting calls for Rajoelina to resign.

In his televised announcement, the president gave no indication that he would step down.

Rajoelina has been president since 2019. He was previously the leader of a provisional government following a 2009 coup. He was reelected in 2023 in a vote that was boycotted by most opposition candidates.

How many people died in Madagascar's protests?

According to a tally by the United Nations human rights office, 22 people have been killed in clashes surrounding the protests.

The casualties included "protesters and bystanders killed by members of the security forces, but also others killed in subsequent violence and looting by individuals and gangs not associated with the demonstrations," OHCHR said in a statement.

More than 100 people also have been injured in the protests, it said.

Madagascar Foreign Minister Rasata Rafaravavitafika has disputed the UN's death toll saying "the government strongly denies" that 22 people had died.

The government has not released any of their own figures on how many people died or were injured.

Is there a link to other Gen Z-led protests?

The movement has adopted as its rallying symbol a pirate flag from the Japanese anime series "One Piece."

This logo was also used recently by youth-led, anti-regime protests in Nepal, as well as in Indonesia, the Philippines and France.

The protesters in Madagascar have also named their movement Gen Z, a nickname attributed to people born between the late 1990s and early 2010s.