Thousands gathered for renewed anti-government demonstrations on Monday, September 29, in several cities across Madagascar, including the capital where security forces dispersed crowds with tear gas, Agence France-Presse journalists saw.
Two days of protests last week erupted in clashes with police as mostly young demonstrators, called to action on social media through a movement called "Gen Z," voiced anger at persistent water and power cuts in the impoverished nation. Thursday's protests in the capital were followed by widespread looting throughout the night, which encountered no police response.
Growing crowds marched through the capital Antananarivo on Monday, many dressed in black and chanting calls for the resignation of President Andry Rajoelina, who first came to power following a popular uprising in 2009. He left power in 2013 but was later elected in 2018, winning reelection in contested polls in 2023.
A statement released by the movement late Sunday called for the government and Antananarivo's prefect to resign. The movement has adopted as its rallying symbol a pirate flag from the Japanese anime series "One Piece," a logo also used recently by youth-led, anti-regime protests in Indonesia and Nepal.
The Gen Z movement said in its Sunday statement that "groups of anonymous individuals were paid to loot numerous establishments in order to tarnish the movement and the ongoing struggle." The movement was named after generation Z, a nickname attributed to people born between the late 1990s and early 2010s.
Protests were also widespread in Antsiranana at the northern tip of Madagascar. The demonstrations were the largest since 2023 when protests erupted ahead of the presidential elections, which were boycotted by opposition parties.
Rajoelina was reelected in the polls in which less than half of registered voters cast their ballots. In a video address late Friday, the president said he had sacked his energy minister "for not doing his job." He also condemned the violence as "acts of destabilization." On Sunday, he told residents of a working-class neighbourhood of Antananarivo that he would "fix everything, to be even closer" to the people.
Despite having natural resources, Madagascar remains one of the poorest countries in the world and is among the most corrupt, ranked 140 out of 180 countries in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index. Nearly 75% of the population lived below the poverty line in 2022, according to the World Bank.