A military colonel in Madagascar has announced that the armed forces are taking control of the country.
The announcement, in front of a ceremonial presidential palace in the capital, Antananarivo, came almost immediately after parliament voted to impeach President Andry Rajoelina.
“We are taking power,” Colonel Michael Randrianirina, the leader of Madagascar’s elite CAPSAT military unit, said.
Mr Rajoelina, whose government has faced weeks of youth protests over poverty, power outages and a lack of opportunity in the Indian Ocean island country, has reportedly fled the country, fearing for his safety.
However, his office denounced the military’s actions as an “attempted coup d’etat” and an “illegal declaration” and insisted that Mr Rajoelina remained in charge.
Colonel Randrianirina said the military would form a council composed of officers from the military and gendarmerie (a military force with policing duties), and that a prime minister would be appointed to “quickly” form a civilian government.
The constitution and the powers of the High Constitutional Court had been suspended, and a referendum would be held in two years, he added, even though the details of the vote were not immediately clear.
