Overview

• Madagascar’s National Assembly voted 130 to impeach President Andry Rajoelina, surpassing the two-thirds threshold, with the High Constitutional Court still required to validate the move.
• Hours before the vote, Rajoelina announced the dissolution of the lower house by decree, a step opposition leaders called legally invalid and seen as an effort to block impeachment.
• Colonel Michael Randrianirina declared, “We have taken the power,” as CAPSAT moved to dissolve institutions and said it would quickly appoint a prime minister and form a civilian cabinet.
• Rajoelina said he is in a safe location and alleged an assassination plot; multiple sources told Reuters he departed on a French military aircraft, a claim not confirmed by French authorities.
• Youth-led protests over chronic water and power cuts persist in Antananarivo, with at least 22 deaths reported by the United Nations as parts of the gendarmerie and police broke from the president and new security chiefs were named.