PREVIEW
Charges against 13 officers, including a general, in a plot against interim leader Michael Randrianirina shows how quickly he has lost military support
Six months after seizing power helped by Gen Z protestors who drove out his predecessor Andry Rajoelina, interim president Colonel Michael Randrianirina has faced down an assassination plot led by dissident officers, say government officials (AC Vol 66 No 21, Gen Z redraws the power map).
State prosecutor Narindra Navalona Rakotoniaina said 11 suspects have been placed in detention, while arrest warrants have been issued for two others. The ringleader, according to the state, is Colonel Patrick Rakotomamonjy, who had held a director level post in the president’s office prior to his dismissal in January.
Rakotomamonjy had been part of the group who had ‘designed and organised’ the planned coup, said the state prosecutor in a televised address on 2 April. He is one of two suspects still at large as Africa Confidential went to press. Rakotoniaina added that several suspects had confessed that 20 billion ariary (US$4.8 million) found in their bank accounts was to fund the plot. The plot appears to have been foiled in late March. Randrianirina told members of the Malagasy diaspora at a meeting in Equatorial Guinea on 28 March that he and his wife had faced an assassination attempt.
Randrianirina’s ascent to power has been largely accepted, if not welcomed, by foreign governments and the Africa Union, but his presidency has had a bumpy start (AC Vol 67 No 3, Government by indicator). In March, he announced a new government, weeks after sacking the team appointed in December. But the new team, again, did not include any Gen Z representatives. Randrianirina felt sufficiently vulnerable to agree a deal with Russia to deploy soldiers and supply arms to the presidential guard.
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