Madagascar\u2019s president has fled the African nation, the head of the opposition and other officials said on Monday, the second time that young protesters have toppled a government in weeks of worldwide Gen Z unrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Siteny Randrianasoloniaiko, leader of the opposition in parliament, told Reuters<\/em> Rajoelina left Madagascar on Sunday after units of the army defected and joined<\/a> the protesters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe called the staff of the presidency and they confirmed that he left the country,\u201d he said, adding that Rajoelina\u2019s current whereabouts were unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The president\u2019s office, which had earlier said Rajoelina would address the nation at 7pm (1600 GMT) on Monday, did not reply to requests for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A military source told Reuters<\/em> that Rajoelina flew out of the country on a French military aircraft on Sunday. French radio RFI<\/em> said he had struck a deal with President Emmanuel Macron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The source said that a French Army Casa aircraft landed in Madagascar\u2019s Sainte Marie airport on Sunday. \u201cFive minutes later, a helicopter arrived and transferred its passenger into the Casa,\u201d the source said, adding that Rajoelina was the passenger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Demonstrations had erupted in the former French colony on September 25 over water and power shortages but quickly escalated into an uprising over broader grievances, including corruption, bad governance and lack of basic services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The anger mirrors recent protests against ruling elites in countries including Nepal, where the prime minister was forced to resign last month, and Morocco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rajoelina had appeared increasingly isolated after losing the support of CAPSAT, an elite unit which had helped him seize power in a 2009 coup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CAPSAT joined the protesters over the weekend, saying it refused to shoot on them and escorting thousands of demonstrators in the main square of the capital Antananarivo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It then said it was taking charge of the military and appointed a new army chief, prompting Rajoelina to warn<\/a> on Sunday of an attempt to seize power in the island nation off the coast of southern Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Monday, a faction of the paramilitary gendarmerie supporting the protests also took control of the gendarmerie at a formal ceremony in the presence of senior government officials, a Reuters<\/em> witness said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The president of the senate \u2014 a focus of public anger during the protests \u2014 was relieved of his functions, the senate said in a statement, and Jean Andr Ndremanjary was appointed on a temporary basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the absence of a president, the leader of the senate takes the post until elections are held.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Monday, thousands of people gathered in a square in the capital, shouting \u201cthe president must quit now\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hotel worker Adrianarivony Fanomegantsoa, 22, told Reuters<\/em> his 300,000-ariary ($67) monthly salary was barely enough to cover food, explaining his reasons for joining the protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn 16 years, the president and his government have done nothing except enrich themselves while the people stay poor. And the youth, the Gen Z, suffer the most,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At least 22 people have been killed in clashes between protesters and the security forces since September 25, according to the UN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Madagascar, where the median age is less than 20, has a population of about 30 million \u2014 three-quarters of whom live in poverty, with GDP per capita plunging 45 per cent between independence in 1960 and 2020, according to the World Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the country is best known for producing most of the worlds vanilla, other exports including nickel, cobalt, textiles and shrimps are also vital to foreign earnings and employment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Madagascar\u2019s president has fled the African nation, the head of the opposition and other officials said on Monday, the second time that young protesters have toppled a government in weeks of worldwide Gen Z unrest. Siteny Randrianasoloniaiko, leader of the opposition in parliament, told Reuters Rajoelina left Madagascar on Sunday after units of the army defected and joined the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_3859443944190656_828796993651875":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6743","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6743"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6745,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6743\/revisions\/6745"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>President left on French military plane<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>Lost support of army, gendarmerie<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>\u2018The president must quit\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n