Madagascar fires prime minister after deadly protests over water and power cuts
Event date: 2025-09-29
Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina dismissed the prime minister and the rest of his cabinet after days of protests over electricity and water shortages that turned deadly, according to AP.
In a national television address, Rajoelina said Prime Minister Christian Ntsay and other ministers would remain in place on an interim basis while a new government is formed. He invited applications for government posts and gave a three-day window to review proposals for a new prime minister. The president acknowledged public anger and apologized for officials who, in his words, had not done the work people expected.
The decision came after large demonstrations swept Antananarivo and other cities. The protests began on Thursday and were driven by frustration over repeated failures in basic utilities. AP reported that the movement spread through social media and drew comparisons with recent youth-led protests in Nepal and Kenya. Crowds used burning tires and rocks to block roads, and several stations tied to the capital’s new cable car system were set on fire.
The United Nations human rights office said 22 people had been killed in clashes linked to the unrest and more than 100 injured. The agency said security forces responded with unnecessary force, using tear gas, beatings, arrests and live ammunition. Madagascar’s foreign minister disputed the UN toll and said the government strongly denied that 22 people had died, but authorities did not provide their own casualty count.
Rajoelina did not say he would resign, even though protesters had demanded both his departure and Ntsay’s. The unrest reflects broader anger over poverty and the failure of the state to provide reliable services. AP noted that the World Bank has recorded a sharp rise in urban poverty in Madagascar in recent years.
The protests also carried a visual symbol borrowed from elsewhere: demonstrators wore or waved a cartoon skull-and-bones image from the anime One Piece, a motif seen in recent anti-government protests in Nepal and parts of Southeast Asia. Placards calling for “justice” and declaring that people are fed up with the status quo made clear that the demonstrations had moved beyond a narrow utility dispute and into a wider political challenge.
Rajoelina has led Madagascar since 2019 and previously headed a transitional government after the 2009 coup. He won re-election in 2023 in a vote boycotted by most opposition candidates. The latest protests show that his government now faces a public backlash rooted not only in service failures but also in deeper frustrations about governance, inequality and accountability.
