Elite military unit 'seizes control' of Madagascar as president is impeached

An elite military unit said it had taken power in Madagascar yesterday, after the country's parliament impeached President Andry Rajoelina following weeks of anti-government protests.

- Rachel Savage

Rajoelina, who said on Monday in a Facebook live video that he had gone into hiding after attempts to kill him, had refused demands to step down, but the demonstrators won the backing of the influential Capsat unit at the weekend.

Yesterday, the presidency posted a statement saying there had been an "attempted coup d'etat".

It continued: "The president of the republic remains fully in office and is ensuring the maintenance of constitutional order and national stability."

Rajoelina has not been seen in public in Madagascar for several days. He reportedly fled the Indian Ocean island on a French military aircraft on Sunday night, after the Capsat military unit said on Saturday that it would not shoot at protesters.

While no order for the military to shoot civilians had been made public, the gendarmerie, police controlled by the ministry of defence, killed demonstrators during the early days of youth-led protests that began on 25 September. The marches started in protest at water and electricity outages and quickly grew into a call for radical political reform and the president's resignation.

Colonel Michael Randrianirina, the leader of Capsat, which is short for Corps d'administration des personnels et des services administratifs et techniques, told reporters at a government building in the capital, Antananarivo, yesterday that the military would form a council of officers from the army, gendarmerie military police and police, while a prime minister would be appointed to "quickly" form a civilian government.