Madagascar, 2010 — military coup attempt

Event Summary

On 17 to 18 November 2010 a group of dissident army officers in Madagascar mounted a coup attempt against Andry Rajoelina, the young former Antananarivo mayor who had seized power in early 2009 with military backing and ruled as head of the unelected High Transitional Authority. The attempt was timed to coincide with a constitutional referendum that Rajoelina was holding to consolidate his rule. Led by former Defense Minister Noel Rakotonandrasanana and Colonel Charles Andrianasoaviana, the head of a special intervention force, the officers holed up at a military base near the capital's airport and announced that they were dissolving the transitional government and taking control of the armed forces, denouncing Rajoelina's rule as illegitimate.

But the mutiny failed to win broad support within the military or the population; loyalist forces contained it, and after a standoff of a few days the plotters were overcome and arrested. Rajoelina survived the challenge, his referendum passed, and he continued to lead Madagascar through the prolonged political crisis and international isolation that followed his own extra constitutional seizure of power, until a negotiated settlement led to elections in 2013.