Overview

• The presidency denounced an illegal attempt to seize power after the elite CAPSAT unit aligned with anti-government demonstrators.
• CAPSAT urged security forces to stop shooting at protesters and announced that all branches would take orders from its headquarters.
• The unit escorted crowds in Antananarivo, named General Demosthene Pikulas as military chief, and a CAPSAT colonel called for the president and prime minister to resign.
• CAPSAT leaders later said they are not staging a coup, and the prime minister said legal institutions remain in place and offered dialogue with both the mutineers and protesters.
• Protests launched on Sept. 25 over water and electricity cuts have swelled, with at least 22 people killed in recent days, and questions persist over the president’s whereabouts and the breadth of military backing for CAPSAT.