ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar — ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (AP) — Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina was due to make a speech on national television on Monday after an elite military unit turned against the government in an apparent coup in the Indian Ocean nation and called for Rajoelina to step down.
Rajoelina’s office said that his speech would be broadcast on state television and radio at 7 p.m. local time (1600 GMT), but didn’t say if the president was still in Madagascar amid reports he had fled following weeks of deadly anti-government protests.
Those protests, which were initially led by youth groups, reached a turning point on Saturday when soldiers from the elite CAPSAT military unit accompanied demonstrators to a square in the capital, Antananarivo, and called for Rajoelina and several government ministers to leave office.
The unit, which helped Rajoelina first come to power as transitional leader in a military-backed coup in 2009, said that it had taken charge of all the armed forces in Madagascar.
Rajoelina’s office said Sunday that “an attempt to seize power illegally and by force” was underway in the nation of 31 million off the east coast of Africa. Rajoelina’s current whereabouts are unknown and a spokesperson for the president didn’t respond to phone calls and messages.
Rajoelina hasn’t identified who was behind the attempted coup, but the CAPSAT military unit appeared to be in a position of authority and on Sunday appointed a general as the new head of Madagascar’s armed forces, which was accepted by the minister of defense.
A commander of CAPSAT, Col. Michael Randrianirina, said that his soldiers had exchanged gunfire with security forces who were attempting to quell weekend protests, and one of his soldiers was killed. But there was no major fighting on the streets, and soldiers riding on armored vehicles and waving Madagascar flags were cheered by people in