Khaberni - Madagascar has been witnessing unprecedented protests for the past three days. Responding to a call from the youth group "Generation Z Madagascar" on social media, and despite the ban on demonstrations imposed by the Antananarivo prefecture on Thursday, thousands of Malagasies took to the streets of the capital to denounce the "continuous power outages and lack of potable water." The movement, comprised mostly of youth and students, considers itself "peaceful and civil". The protests, throughout the day, were met with severe repression, involving tear gas, physical violence, violent arrests, and rubber bullets. Initial estimates indicate dozens of injuries and several deaths, while NGOs fear the number could be higher. This movement, which appears to be distant from political parties, in a country where 75% of the population lives below the poverty line, condemns a system considered corrupt. This was followed by new demonstrations on Friday and Saturday in major cities in the provinces – Mahajanga, Toliara, and Tamatave. In Diego Suarez, crowds carrying the body of a student killed by security forces emerged.
Madagascar is located in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of South Africa, and is the fifth largest island in the world. Despite its rich natural resources and unique biodiversity, it struggles to transform these advantages into development. The country's population exceeds 30 million and continues to suffer from extreme poverty: 75% of Madagascar's population lives below the poverty line. Over a million people, in the southern part of the country, have been facing a severe food insecurity situation for several years.
Despite relatively stable economic growth – 4.2% in 2024 – the failures of the social and political system prevent any sustainable improvement in living standards. The economy, reliant on external markets and hampered by the absence of reliable infrastructure, is primarily based on tourism and telecommunications. Social challenges are enormous. Strong population growth (+2.4% per year) saturates an already oversaturated job market, largely dominated by the informal sector. With an average wage of about 22 euros per month (108,000 Ariary), more than half of the population lives on less than one euro a day.
Unprecedented youth demonstrations
"I went there because we no longer have any future prospects under our current circumstances," says Aina (a pseudonym), a 25-year-old activist and former student. "The goal of our demonstration was to protest against the water and electricity outages. In a country where a large part of the population lives in poverty, we must defend our fundamental rights."
Alongside her friends, she held up a banner that read: "If water and electricity were a priority, the problem would have been solved before building stadiums or cable cars". It's a message denouncing the priority setting of the public authorities’ infrastructure projects.
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