'We can be proud of this generation': Madagascar's youth continue to protest

Madascar's Gen Z protesters are unbroken in their will to continue to call for change and the abdication of president Andry Rajoelina. The head of state meanwhile said on Friday that he refused to resign, claiming instead that some forces wanted to overthrow the government.

They want an end to the power outages and running water cuts, a better health system, their freedom of speech to be respected - and they want the president to go.

For a week already, Madagascar has been shaken by large-scale protests, led mainly by young people.

In Antananarivo, a music studio has been turned into a rallying point for the protesters.

Part of Generation Z, the artists, entrepreneurs and freelancers have found inspiration in recent youth protests against governments seen as corrupt or autocratic and for better living conditions, like the protests in Nepal and Bangladesh.

"Madagascar is on an island, we don't really know what's going on outside of it and thankfully, with social media we know that in fact, we can if we want to, and it's also thanks to Nepal, which influenced us and in turn Madagascar has inspired others", Annah Rahajason, a student present at the music-studio-turned-protest-supply-point, said.

Rahajason added: "And we can be proud of this generation".

Despite the protest movement initially being peaceful, the violent armed repression from security forces has led to the protesters calling for the president to resign. On Monday, 29 September, president Andry Rajoelina dismissed the government in an attempt to calm the situation, while also promising change.

But for the protesters, he, too, must go, before real change can happen.

On Friday, Rajoelina posted a video on his Facebook account, in which he claimed that the Gen Z protesters had been manipulated by political opponents and also referred to several plots that were allegedly underway to destroy the country, overthrow the government and notably damage its energy infrastructure. Rajoelina has so far refused to resign.