Madagascar’s main political rivals failed to strike a deal on Saturday to end nearly 14 months of political uncertainty on the Indian Ocean island but agreed to meet again later this month.
President Andry Rajoelina ousted Marc Ravalomanana with the help of dissident soldiers in March last year after weeks of mass protests. The two have been at loggerheads ever since as international mediators work to install a unity government.
Rajoelina, Ravalomanana and former political leaders Albert Zafy and Didier Ratsiraka attended three days of talks in Pretoria organised by mediators from France, South Africa and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
“The consultations were productive and a number of good and useful proposals were put forward,” SADC mediator and former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano told reporters.
“At the conclusion of the consultations, the leaders of the four movements committed themselves to reconvene in approximately 15 days in South Africa to resolve outstanding matters,” said Chissano.
Army calls the shots
The army had said Rajoelina had until the end of April to come up with an acceptable way out of the political impasse on the world’s fourth largest island.
The crisis has hit foreign investment and battered the tourism industry in Madagascar, the world’s biggest producer of vanilla and a country with potentially substantial oil and mineral reserves.
Since the crisis erupted, there has been a diplomatic divide among African nations with Anglophones largely seen favouring Ravalomanana and Francophones tending to side with Rajoelina, according to African Union sources and analysts.
Ravalomanana had a rocky relationship with France and has accused the island’s former colonial power of supporting Rajoelina’s rise to power.
Rajoelina has been suspicious of SADC since Ravalomanana fled into exile in South Africa and an economic bloc of eastern and southern African nations (Comesa) has said it was mulling military intervention to restore constitutional order.
France and the United Nations have warned against military intervention and urged further dialogue. – Reuters