Guterres urged all parties to restore constitutional order and the rule of law following a military coup that ousted President Andry Rajoelina.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In a statement released by his Spokesperson, St\u00e9phane Dujarric, Guterres welcomed the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council\u2019s decision to suspend Madagascar from all AU activities until civilian governance is restored.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Secretary-General encourages all Malagasy stakeholders, including the youth, to work together to address the underlying causes of instability in Madagascar,\u201d Dujarric said, adding that the UN stands ready to support efforts towards peace and democratic restoration in coordination with the AU, the Southern African Development Community and other international partners.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The suspension comes after the military, led by Colonel Michael Randrianirina, seized power last weekend, citing \u201cnational security concerns\u201d and accusing President Rajoelina of abandoning his post after reportedly fleeing abroad. Parliament later impeached Rajoelina, who has since condemned the coup and vowed not to resign.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Randrianirina, who has declared himself head of state, has indicated willingness to engage with the AU to resolve the crisis. \u201cWe are open to dialogue with the AU,\u201d he said in a televised address on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The military takeover follows weeks of youth-led demonstrations by so-called Gen Z protesters demanding Rajoelina\u2019s resignation over alleged corruption and economic mismanagement. Growing defections within the security forces further weakened the President\u2019s grip on power.<\/p>\n
–Sherwin-Bryce Pease\/ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12905,"template":"default||default","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-13017","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres has strongly condemned the unconstitutional change of government in Madagascar. ||United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres has strongly condemned the unconstitutional change of government in Madagascar. ","published_date":null,"news_description":"","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/13017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/13017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18337,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/13017\/revisions\/18337"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=13017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}