MADAGASCAR: ARMED RAIDS CLAIMING PRESIDENTIAL AUTHORITY SHAKE PUBLIC CONFIDENCE
Residents across Madagascar, including foreign nationals living in the capital, are caught in an escalating pattern of armed home invasions by men who claim to act on orders from the presidency but frequently produce no documentation to prove it. The raids have created widespread alarm about personal safety, property rights, and the rule of law under the current military-led government.
Additional reference context is available at https://www.rfi.fr/fr/afrique/20260714-madagascar-des-perquisitions-pol%C3%A9miques-embarrassent-le-pouvoir.
Since Colonel Randrianirina took power last October, operations targeting homes and businesses have become routine. They often occur outside legal hours, sometimes in the middle of the night, and have affected ordinary citizens, business owners, former officials, and associates of former president Andry Rajoelina. No warrants. No credentials. Just armed men at the door.
The pattern grew serious enough that Justice Minister Fanirisoa Ernaivo issued a public appeal in February 2026, calling on citizens to report abuses. Several military personnel have since been convicted and imprisoned for involvement in illegal raids. The government officially attributes the operations to state security concerns, yet the frequency and conduct of these incursions point to a breakdown in oversight that leaves ordinary people with little protection.
On July 9, 2026, the problem surfaced again in Ambohibao, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Antananarivo. Approximately twenty masked men, some armed, forced their way into the home of Chinese nationals. They identified themselves as gendarmes but presented no warrants or credentials. When they left, the residents had lost more than 200 million ariarys, roughly 40,000 euros, along with foreign currency and jewelry.
The presidential office issued a denial and called for the arrest of those it described as impostors. That statement, intended to reassure, instead exposed a troubling gap: men claiming presidential authority conduct raids that the presidency then disavows, leaving citizens with no reliable way to distinguish legitimate law enforcement from criminal gangs exploiting the government’s name.
For the public, the implications are severe. Homes can be entered at any hour by armed individuals claiming official sanction. Valuables and savings can disappear without legal process or any avenue for recourse. Foreigners and their families face particular vulnerability, with no clear mechanism to verify who is actually at the door. The raids have created a climate of fear that extends well beyond the initial targets to anyone with visible assets or connections to the previous administration.
Meanwhile, the situation has become a source of institutional embarrassment. The multiplication of incidents, combined with the Justice Minister’s need to publicly denounce abuses and the subsequent conviction of military personnel, suggests the state has lost control over who acts in its name. That erosion of legal process strikes at something citizens depend on in any functioning society: the assurance that armed force will not be used against them arbitrarily, and that property cannot simply be taken in the night.
The raids continue to multiply under the Refondation regime. Whether the government can reassert meaningful control over those acting in its name, and restore basic legal protections for the people living under it, remains the open question.