Madagascar President Appoints Army General as Prime Minister in Bid to Defuse Protests
General Ruphin Zafisambo replaces Christian Ntsay to address protests sparked by power outages and water shortages amid widespread poverty affecting nearly 75% of Madagascar’s population, World Bank says.
- Madagascar’s President Andry Rajoelina appointed General Ruphin Fortunat Dimbisoa Zafisambo as the country’s new prime minister in a bid to ease anti-government protests.
- The near-daily protests since September 25, initially sparked by power and water outages, have evolved into demands for President Rajoelina’s resignation.
- Security forces used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse protesters, with at least one injury reported, amid UN condemnation of the heavy-handed response.
Malagasy President Andry Rajoelina appointed a military prime minister on Monday in an attempt to extinguish a long-running political crisis, particularly on the streets where his security forces dispersed more than a thousand protesters in Antananarivo, leaving at least one person injured.
A week after dismissing his government in an attempt to calm the protests that had engulfed this particularly poor island in the Indian Ocean, the head of state appointed as Prime Minister an army general who is largely unknown to the general public, Ruphin Fortunat Dimbisoa Zafisambo.
Will the choice of this man, former general manager of the Malagasy basketball federation but above all chief of staff of his predecessor a few years ago, be enough to stop the noise of stun grenades and tear gas in Antananarivo?
Their detonations resonated again on Monday in the face of two processions of hundreds of people in a Malagasy capital that remains highly militarized, on the twelfth day of the protest movement that has plunged the country into an acute political crisis.
The collective that lit the spark, Gen Z, set a 48-hour “ultimatum” for the president to respond to its demands on Monday evening, in a joint statement with around twenty other organizations, or face taking “all necessary measures.”
The movement, which began on September 25, has turned into a challenge to the current government, particularly to the head of state, Andry Rojoelina, after starting out as a reaction to repeated water and electricity cuts.
“There are about 120 hours of power outages per week in my area. We’re protesting for the greater good. The president doesn’t listen to the anger of the people at the bottom. He always does what he wants,” fumes Tommy Fanomezantsoa, a 21-year-old warehouse worker.
On Red Cross radio, the “Romeo”—a code name for announcing clashes—filled the air throughout the afternoon. A young man in his twenties was injured by a projectile fired by police, AFP reported, and hospitalized.
The group behind the protests had called for further demonstrations on Monday, starting at the Ankatso University Campus on the outskirts of the capital.
