During the meeting, Russia offered personal protection to the Malagasy leader, who has repeatedly stated that he feels threatened. In this way, Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to add Madagascar to the growing list of African countries under his direct influence, following the same pattern of protection and military cooperation in exchange for access to resources. This list already includes the Central African Republic (CAR), Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Libya, and Equatorial Guinea, among others.
Coastal villages around Toliara, a city in southern Madagascar, host tens of thousands of the semi-nomadic Vezo people, who make a living from small-scale fishing on the ocean. For centuries, they have launched pirogues, small boats carved from single tree trunks, every day into the turquoise shallows to catch tuna, barracuda and grouper. We rely solely on the ocean, says Soa Nomeny, a woman from a small island off the south-west coast called Nosy Ve.
Madagascar's embattled President Andry Rajoelina has issued a decree dissolving the National Assembly as he bids to avert a slide from power. Rajoelina, who has fled the country, issued the decree on social media on Tuesday, ahead of a planned impeachment vote. However, with parts of the military and the police offering support to mass protests calling for his resignation, his efforts to cling to power threaten to send the island nation's political crisis spiralling into chaos.
"The Presidency of the Republic wishes to inform the nation and the international community that an attempt to seize power illegally and by force, contrary to the Constitution and to democratic principles, is currently underway," Rajoelina said in a statement released by the presidency Sunday morning.
Authorities in Madagascar have imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in the capital, Antananarivo, following protests against frequent power outages and water shortages that turned violent. Hundreds of protesters took to the streets on Thursday to voice their anger over persistent power cuts, which often leave homes and businesses without electricity for over 12 hours. Police used rubber bullets and tear gas to quash the demonstrations.
