ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar
Anti-government protesters in Madagascar held fresh demonstrations on Wednesday and called for a general strike, seeking to force President Andry Rajoelina to step down, after nearly a week of action by the youth-led movement.
Police fired tear gas at protesters in the centre of the capital, Antananarivo, where some 10,000 clashed with police on Tuesday, although life had mostly returned to normal in the rest of the city by later that afternoon, according to AFP journalists on the ground.
A crowd of several thousand marched in the northern city of Antsiranana, demanding the president's resignation, a local source told AFP, while several hundred gathered in Toliara, in the south.
Rajoelina on Wednesday evening organised a meeting at the presidential palace with foreign diplomats, spokesperson Lova Ranoromaro told AFP.
Ranoromaro added that the protesters had dispersed "without a clear leader emerging... to allow for a structured exchange" of views.
Near-daily protests over misgovernance and water and power cuts began in Antananarivo last Thursday and spread to other cities across the Indian Ocean nation of almost 32 million people.
Despite Rajoelina having sacked his government on Monday in a bid to placate the unrest, anger has been intensified by a heavy crackdown on protesters.
At least 22 have died and more than a hundred have been injured in the unrest, according to the UN.
The government has rejected the tally as unverified and "based on rumours or misinformation".
"The dismissal of the government is not enough for us," a spokesperson for the "Gen Z" movement leading the protests told AFP on Tuesday, adding further demands are the president's resignation and "the cleaning up of the National Assembly."
Another anonymous demonstrator told AFP that "living conditions of the Malagasy people are deteriorating and getting worse every day".
Rajoelina "has been in power for 16 years, but nothing has changed" in a poverty-stricken society, he said.
Rajoelina, 51, first came to power in 2009 following a coup sparked by an uprising, which ousted former president Marc Ravalomanana.
After not contesting the 2013 election under international pressure, Rajoelina was voted back into office in 2018 and re-elected in 2023 in contested polls boycotted by the opposition.
Initially silent, the opposition endorsed the movement through a rare joint statement on Wednesday, with opposition leader Siteny Randrianasoloniaiko and former president Ravalomanana among the signatories.
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