The Capsat unit’s intervention comes after weeks of youth-led protests, which started on 25 September against water and electricity shortages and expanded to calling for the resignation of the president, Andry Rajoelina, an end to corruption and radical overhaul of the political system.
Rajoelina said he was “in the country … managing national affairs”, in a statement released on Sunday morning. The newly appointed prime minister, Ruphin Fortunat Zafisambo, had said on state television on Saturday night that the government was “fully ready to listen and engage in dialogue with all factions – youth, unions or the military”.
Rajoelina said: “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 under way.”
Soldiers from Capsat , which brought Rajoelina to power in a coup in 2009, said on Sunday morning that they were taking command of the military, according to a videoed statement shared by local news organisations.
Later on Sunday, General Demosthene Pikulas, the head of Capsat, was installed as chief of the army staff during a ceremony at the army headquarters attended by armed forces minister Manantsoa Deramasinjaka Rakotoarivelo.
“I give him my blessing,” the minister said of Pikulas.
Pikulas admitted to journalists after the ceremony that events in Madagascar over the past few days had been “unpredictable”.
“So the army has a responsibility to restore calm and peace throughout Madagascar,” he said.
When asked if he called for Rajoelina to resign, he refused to “discuss politics within a military facility”.
On Saturday, Capsat said it would not fire on protesters and called on the rest of the military to “join forces” in refusing. Late in the afternoon, members of the unit left their base in Soanierana district, in the south of the capital, Antananarivo, driving in armoured vehicles to the symbolic May 13 Square, about 3 miles to the north, accompanied by thousands of cheering protesters.
A Capsat general said on Saturday that one of their soldiers had been killed by the gendarmerie, police under the command of the defence ministry, and a journalist had been shot in the buttocks. The UN said at least 22 people were killed at the start of the protests in September, but Rajoelina disputed this last week, saying 12 “looters and vandals” had died.
