Madagascar Coup Leader to Be Sworn In as President After Ousting Rajoelina

Colonel Michael Randrianirina, the army officer who led the military rebellion that toppled President Andry Rajoelina, says he will soon be sworn in as Madagascar’s new president.

In an interview from his barracks, Randrianirina said the country’s High Constitutional Court had invited him to assume the role of head of state following Rajoelina’s flight from the country amid mass youth-led protests. “There must be an oath-taking,” he told the Associated Press, pledging to form a new government soon.

The coup followed weeks of demonstrations over water shortages, power cuts, and corruption, which escalated after Randrianirina’s elite CAPSAT unit joined protesters in the capital, Antananarivo, forcing Rajoelina to flee.

Rajoelina, in power since 2018 and himself a product of a 2009 coup, has condemned the takeover as illegal. The African Union has yet to issue a formal response but has called an emergency meeting on the crisis.

Madagascar, which has experienced multiple coups since independence in 1960, remains one of Africa’s poorest nations, with analysts warning that the military takeover risks deepening instability in the island nation of 31 million.