ANTANANARIVO: The United States is encouraging diplomats and citizens to leave Madagascar and UN-brokered talks scheduled for Thursday to mediate in the Indian Ocean island’s political crisis have been postponed.
The world’s fourth largest island has slid into crisis due to a power struggle between the president and opposition that has killed at least 135 people in unrest and left it unclear who is controlling the government and sections of the military.
US Ambassador Niels Marquardt, who said on Wednesday that Madagascar was ‘on the verge of civil war’, had offered staff voluntary evacuation, sources at the mission told Reuters.
‘He has very strongly encouraged us to leave if we feel uncomfortable,’ said one senior official, who was planning to fly out with relatives on Friday.
A warden message by the embassy said: ‘We encourage all Americans in Madagascar to monitor the situation closely and consider departing the country while commercial air is still operating normally.’
It was unclear just how many US citizens were preparing to leave, and there was no indication that other foreign nationals were following suit to quit Madagascar.
Mediators had hoped to bring President Marc Ravalomanana and opposition leader Andry Rajoelina together on Thursday for face-to-face talks to end the chaos that is hammering a $390 million-a-year tourism industry and spooking foreign investors.
But Rajoelina, who has been under UN protection since fleeing attempts to arrest him last week, refused to attend.
‘Today’s dialogue has been postponed because we have met last minute problems,’ UN mediator Drame Tiebile told Reuters, giving no more details.
Rajoelina, 34, a baby-faced former disc jockey, has tapped into a deep vein of public anger at Ravalomanana’s failure to tackle poverty. He calls the president a dictator and has tried to establish a parallel administration.
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