Madagascar

ANTANANARIVO, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- Madagascar's incumbent President Andry Rajoelina has won the presidential election by garnering more than 50 percent of the votes, according to preliminary results released Saturday by the country's Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI).

The CENI announced that Rajoelina obtained a total of 2,856,090 votes, or 58.95 percent of the votes, at a press conference.

With more than 50 percent of the votes garnered, the incumbent president won the presidential election during its first round, said the CENI.

ANTANANARIVO, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Madagascan Foreign Minister Yvette Sylla hailed "dynamic and fruitful" cooperation between Madagascar and China at a reception to celebrate the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in the capital Antananarivo on Thursday.

ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (AP) — A crush of people at a stadium in Madagascar left at least 12 dead and 85 injured as sports fans attended the opening ceremony of the Indian Ocean Island Games, authorities said Saturday.

The stampede at the Mahamasina Stadium in Antananarivo, the capital of the East African island nation, happened Friday as people gathered at an entrance for the official opening of the regional multi-sports event.

ANTANANARIVO, March 12 (Xinhua) -- At least 22 people have been killed after a boat carrying migrants capsized off the coast of Madagascar in Southern Africa, Madagascar's port authority said on Sunday evening.

The boat carrying a total of 47 people capsized on Saturday due to an accident in the seas off the coast of Madagascar, the Maritime and River Port Agency said in a statement.

Twenty-three of them on board were saved, and operations to rescue the missing were still ongoing, the authorities said.

ANTANANARIVO, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Madagascar's president has fired his foreign affairs minister for voting at the United Nations to condemn Russian-organised referendums to annex four partially-occupied regions in Ukraine, two sources at the president's office said.

Last Wednesday, the U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to condemn what it said was Russia's "attempted illegal annexation" of the four regions in Ukraine and called on all countries not to recognise the move. 

ANTANANARIVO, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Madagascar braced on Saturday for cyclone Batsirai to make landfall, with forecasters warning the storm could bring further devastation to the island nation just two weeks after another cyclone killed at least 55 people.

A local weather bulletin said the storm system was about 163 kilometres (100 miles) off the Indian Ocean island's eastern coast on Saturday afternoon and that landfall was expected at about 6 p.m. (1500 GMT).

Batsirai is packing wind speeds of 165 kilometres per hour (103 mph), the bulletin added.

ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (AP) — Madagascar is bracing for a new cyclone even as the Indian Ocean island recovers from a tropical storm that wreaked devastation last month.

Cyclone Batsirai is forecast to hit the island’s east coast on Saturday with heavy winds and rains, according to Madagascar’s Department of Meteorology.

The storm has already blown by the islands of Mauritius and Reunion, killing at least person in Mauritius and causing widespread power cuts.

ANTANANARIVO, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Madagascar authorities have arrested 21 suspects over an assassination attempt on President Andry Rajoelina, local media reported on Monday.

Berthine Razafiarivony, general attorney of the court of appeal of Antananarivo, told a briefing on Sunday that based on tangible, material evidence in the hands of investigators, the main instigators of the plot have been identified, L'Express de Madagascar reported.

The suspects intended to eliminate five Malagasy political figures, including president Rajoelina, she said.

ANTANANARIVO, June 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Madagascar’s education minister has been fired over plans to order more than $2m worth of sweets for schoolchildren.

Rijasoa Andriamanana said pupils would be given three lollipops each to mask the “bitter” aftertaste of an untested herbal remedy for coronavirus.

The plan was called off after objections from Madagascar’s president.

President Andry Rajoelina is promoting the herbal tonic Covid-Organics as a coronavirus cure.

21 April 2020; AFP: The president of Madagascar Andry Rajoelina has officially launched a local herbal remedy claimed to prevent and cure the novel coronavirus.

"Tests have been carried out -- two people have now been cured by this treatment," Rajoelina told ministers, diplomats and journalists at the Malagasy Institute of Applied Research (IMRA), which developed the beverage.

"This herbal tea gives results in seven days," he said.