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Young protesters in Madagascar have said they will continue their fight for the resignation of the president, Andry Rajoelina, and rejected his dissolution of the government on Monday as insufficient.
Twenty-two people were killed and 100 injured at the demonstrations, according to the UN. The unrest broke out on 25 September when local councillors were arrested for protesting against water and electricity outages in the capital, Antananarivo. The youth-led protests quickly spread to other towns and cities, fuelled by social media and other “Gen Z protests in Indonesia and Nepal, where the government was toppled.
Madagascar is one of the world’s poorest countries, with an average annual income of just $545 last year, according to the World Bank. The Indian Ocean island, which has a population of 32 million, was ranked 140 out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index.
Activists, who are part of Gen Z Madagascar, a leaderless group of young people, are demanding the resignation of the president; the dissolution of parliament; the replacement of constitutional court judges and electoral commission members and the rooting out of corruption that they say stems from the president and businessmen close to him.
“When he decided to dissolve the government, we felt like it was a small victory, but we will not stop there … We really want a radical change of the system because it’s the system that maintains the corruption and also maintains the oppression of the poorest people in the country,” said a 26-year-old activist who, like her fellow protesters, asked to remain anonymous for fear of arrest.
She added: “After what happened in Nepal, youth really believe that their voices can be really powerful … and that we can actually change things. We don’t have to accept the status quo and we can define our future. We do not have to be sacrificed by this mediocre government.”
In a speech announcing the dissolution of the government on Monday, Rajoelina, who came to power in a coup in 2009 after street protests against his predecessor, Marc Ravalomanana, said: “We acknowledge and apologise if members of the government have not carried out the tasks assigned to them.
“I understand the anger, the sadness, and the difficulties caused by power cuts and water supply problems. I heard the call, I felt the suffering, I understood the impact on daily life.” He added that that he wanted to create space for dialogue with young people.
The 26-year-old activist said the group would engage in talks only if they were public and fully transparent. Some of her fellow protesters rejected talks entirely, saying the president was insincere and trying to create division in their movement.
“It’s literally a mafia,” said an 18-year-old protester, who finished secondary school this year and helps to run Gen Z Madagascar’s social media accounts. “They are going to try to speak to us, obviously, but it’s never going to be in our interest.”
Gen Z Madagascar members had been learning from fellow young protesters in Asia, he said. They have joined the Nepali movement Discord’s servers and have adapted a flag with the cartoon skull and crossbones from the Japanese anime series One Piece, which has been flown in Indonesia, Nepal and the Philippines. In place of the original straw hat, the skull wears a satroka bucket hat from Madagascar’s Betsileo ethnic group.
Similar Gen Z protests have been raging in Morocco since the weekend, with two people killed by security forces near Agadir on Wednesday.
Malagasy officials have accused the protesters of looting. The president’s spokesperson, Lova Hasinirina Ranoromaro, said in a Facebook post on Wednesday: “We lost our jobs. Our property was destroyed. Our houses were raided … We don’t want a coup d’état.” Ranoromaro did not respond to requests for comment.
The Malagasay activists denied young people were responsible for the looting and said they had arranged a cleanup day on 26 September. They added they were determined to remain “constitutional” and avoid a repeat of the 2009 coup.
The young people said they were aware and often afraid of the risks they were taking and some of their compatriots had gone into hiding. But they they were determined to continue until their demands for complete reform of Madagascar’s politics were met, they said.
“I realised if I stop now, who’s gonna stand up again? If I don’t do it, who’s going to do it? If it’s not now, then when?” said a 25-year-old who helps to run Gen Z Madagascar’s social media. “Because it’s been 15 years that this regime has brought people to its knees and right now we’re standing up. So we are the last hope of this generation.”
