A renegade army unit siding with anti-government protesters in Madagascar has installed a new military chief as President Andry Rajoelina denounced an “attempt to seize power illegally”.

General Demosthene Pikulas was installed as chief of the Army Staff during a ceremony at the army headquarters attended by Armed Forces Minister Manantsoa Deramasinjaka Rakotoarivelo on Sunday.

“I give him my blessing,” the minister said of Pikulas, who was chosen by the mutinying CAPSAT unit that on Saturday had joined the youth-led demonstrators.

The CAPSAT army unit played a major role in a 2009 coup that first brought Rajoelina to power.

Early on Sunday, the contingent claimed in a video statement that “from now on, all orders of the Malagasy army – whether land, air or [naval] – will originate from CAPSAT headquarters.”

The declaration came hours after the presidency accused unnamed forces of attempting to overthrow Rajoelina. In a statement, the presidency said “an attempted illegal and forcible seizure of power” was under way in the African nation, without providing details.

After the army ceremony installing him as chief, Pikulas admitted to journalists that events in Madagascar over the past few days had been “unpredictable”.

“So the army has a responsibility to restore calm and peace throughout Madagascar,” he said.

Asked about calls for Rajoelina to resign, he said he refused to “discuss politics within a military facility”.

‘Do not obey orders’

On Saturday, military personnel from CAPSAT had urged their comrades to stop following orders and instead back the youth-led uprising.

“We have become boot lickers,” some members of the unit said in a video posted on social media. “We have chosen to submit and execute orders, even illegal ones, instead of protecting the population and their property.”

“Do not obey orders from your superiors. Point your weapons at those who order you to fire on your comrades in arms because they will not take care of our families if we die,” they said.

CAPSAT Colonel Michael Randrianirina said his unit’s decision to join the protesters did not amount to a coup. “We answered the people’s calls, but it wasn’t a coup d’etat,” he told reporters.

Prime Minister Ruphin Fortunat Zafisambo, a military general appointed after Rajoelina dismissed his predecessor under pressure from demonstrators, said the government was “fully ready to listen and engage in dialogue with all factions – youth, unions or the military”.

Separately, the country’s Senate announced in a statement that Senate President General Richard Ravalomanana – a close ally of Rajoelina’s – had been removed from office, citing “the current political situation in Madagascar and in response to the Malagasy people’s aspirations for stability, justice, and transparent governance.”

People on the streets of the capital, Antananarivo, were pleased about the announcement, said Al Jazeera’s Fahmida Miller, reporting from the city’s Independence Square on Sunday.

“People here say that his dismissal is important because it could mean that Andry Rajoelina could leave office. We don’t know if that’s the case; it could be that the Senate is trying to appease Malagasies who have been out protesting on the streets,” she said, but added that this in addition to CAPSAT coming out in support of the protesters has given many hope.

“What we can say is that Madagascar is in crisis,” Miller said. “[But] people here are optimistic that there is change coming. They call it a revolution. People here have given Andry Rajoelina one day to leave office … They are demanding that he leave office, they are also demanding that he apologise for the people who have been killed [by security forces].”

Madagascar’s army has a long history of intervening in politics during crises. Since independence from France in 1960, it has backed or led several power shifts, including coups in the 1970s and in 2009, when it helped oust President Marc Ravalomanana and bring Antananarivo’s reformist mayor, Rajoelina, to power.

Though the military has stayed mostly in the background in recent years, it remains an influential force in the country’s often fragile political landscape.

‘Frustrated and angry’

The current protests began in late September as rallies against chronic water and electricity shortages, but have escalated into the gravest threat to Rajoelina’s authority since he won a disputed second term in 2023.

Only around one-third of Madagascar’s population has electricity access, the International Monetary Fund reports, with blackouts routinely stretching beyond eight hours daily.

“People don’t have refrigeration for medication, don’t have water for basic hygiene, and then there’s massive corruption,” Ketakandriana Rafitoson, the global vice chair of Transparency International, told the Reuters news agency.

Last week, Rajoelina appealed to protesters to give him one year, pledging to step aside if his final effort to meet their expectations and regain public support fails.

Al Jazeera’s Miller said on Sunday that Malagasies have not heard from the president for at least two days, and that people are “very frustrated and angry”.

“Protesters say they will continue with these protests for as long as President Andry Rajoelina remains in office,” she added.

Security forces have frequently clashed with demonstrators firing tear gas and rubber bullets.

The United Nations says at least 22 people have been killed and more than 100 injured since the protests erupted on September 25, though the government disputes these figures.

The announcement by members of the CAPSAT unit marked a dramatic turn in the country’s weeklong political crisis.

After the soldiers broke ranks, they escorted thousands of protesters into May 13 Square, a symbolic site for political uprisings in Antananarivo that had been sealed off and heavily guarded throughout the last few weeks.

Videos shared online showed CAPSAT troops addressing crowds outside the capital’s town hall, with demonstrators and military personnel standing together atop a destroyed police vehicle.

Demonstrators, most of them young people and university students, are demanding that Rajoelina resign, apologise to the nation, and dissolve the Senate and electoral commission.

The protesters, organised under the banner Gen Z Madagascar, have rejected repeated government offers for talks, saying in a statement: “We do not reach out to a regime that every day crushes those who stand up for justice.”

The movement, which has drawn inspiration from youth-led protests that toppled governments in Nepal and Sri Lanka, has adopted a pirate skull and skull-and-crossbones image from the anime series One Piece.

The chairperson of the African Union Commission, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, on Sunday issued a statement expressing “deep concern” over developments in Madagascar and calling on all parties to “exercise calm and restraint”.

Separately, Air France-KLM’s French division suspended flights between Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport and Antananarivo from October 11 to October 13 “due to the security situation” on the ground, the airline said in a statement on Sunday. (Al Jazeera, excluding headline)