ANTANANARIVO: Security forces fired teargas to disperse hundreds of young protesters in Madagascar’s capital who took to the streets again on Tuesday despite the president’s decision to partly yield to their demands by dissolving the government.
Andry Rajoelina went on state television late on Monday and said he wanted to create room for dialogue with young people pressing for access to water and an end to power cuts, and promised measures to support businesses affected by looting.
In a message on the protest movement’s Facebook page, some of the protest organizers said they were disappointed by his speech and demanded an apology from him and the now dismissed prime minister, as well as the firing of Antananarivo’s administrator.
Others went further, waving placards with messages such as “We need water, we need electricity, Rajoelina out,” footage of protesters marching in the capital Antananarivo, broadcast on the privately owned broadcaster Real TV Madagasikara, showed.
Protesters also marched in the city of Fenoarivo, a small town 20 km (12 miles) west of the capital, footage from Real TV showed.
Rallies were reported in MaHajjanga, 510 km (315 miles) northwest of Antananarivo, and in Diego Suarez, 950 km (590 miles) north of the capital, privately owned 2424.MG and Fitaproduction reported.
A government spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday’s protest.
The United Nations says at least 22 people have been killed and more than 100 injured in protests that began last week and are now in the fourth day.
The ministry of foreign affairs has rejected the casualty figures shared by the UN, saying the data did not come from competent national authorities and were based on rumors or misinformation.
Inspired by the so-called youth-led “Gen Z” protests in Kenya and Nepal, the four days of demonstrations have been the largest the Indian Ocean island has seen in years, and the most serious challenge Rajoelina has faced since his re-election in 2023.
Rajoelina first came to power in a 2009 coup. He stepped down in 2014 but became president again after winning the 2018 election, and secured a third term in a December 2023 poll that his challengers said was marred by irregularities.
In Monday’s and last week’s protests, the demonstrators adapted a flag used in Nepal, where protesters forced the prime minister to resign this month.
They have also used similar online tactics to organize rallies as protesters did last year in Kenya, where the government scrapped proposed tax legislation.
Madagascar protesters return to streets despite move to dissolve government
https://arab.news/wgyj4
Madagascar protesters return to streets despite move to dissolve government
- Protesters also marched in the city of Fenoarivo
- Rallies were reported in MaHajjanga, northwest of Antananarivo, and in Diego Suarez, north of the capital
Trump says no talks with Iran until ‘unconditional surrender’
- Earlier Trump demanded right to help name new Iranian leader
- Iran’s president says countries have begun mediation efforts
BEIRUT/WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM: US President Donald Trump demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender” on Friday, a dramatic escalation of his demands a week into the war he launched alongside Israel.
Trump made the remarks on social media just hours after Iran’s president announced that unspecified countries had begun mediation efforts in one of the first signals of any diplomatic initiative to end the conflict.
“There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” Trump wrote.
“After that, and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s), we, and many of our wonderful and very brave allies and partners, will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction, making it economically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before.”
On Thursday Trump had told Reuters in a telephone interview that he was demanding the right to help select Iran’s new supreme leader, to replace Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed in the war’s first day.
Israel pounded the Lebanese capital Beirut on Friday after ordering an unprecedented evacuation of the entire southern suburbs of the city, in a major expansion of the war.
It also launched a new wave of attacks on Iran, saying 50 of its warplanes had struck a bunker beneath the destroyed Tehran compound of Khamenei, still being used by Iran’s leadership after he was killed.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian posted on X: “Some countries have begun mediation efforts.” He did not identify the countries or provide further details.
“Let’s be clear: we are committed to lasting peace in the region, but we have not the slightest hesitation in defending the dignity and authority of our country. Mediation should address those who underestimated the Iranian people and ignited this conflict,” he added.
Under Iran’s system, the president is subordinate to the supreme leader, but Pezeshkian is now serving on a panel that has assumed Khamenei’s duties.
