One year after young protesters chanting for reliable water and electricity toppled a president, Madagascar's "Gen Z" movement marked the anniversary on Friday by accusing the military-backed government it helped install of turning the state's security apparatus against them.

The demonstrations that began on September 25, 2025, over chronic water and power cuts in the capital, Antananarivo, grew into a nationwide uprising against then-President Andry Rajoelina. In October, soldiers from the elite Capsat unit joined the protesters, a turning point that led Rajoelina to flee the country and the National Assembly to impeach him. Capsat commander Colonel Michael Randrianirina was sworn in as interim president on October 17, 2025, after unrest that killed at least 22 people, according to the United Nations' accounting of the crisis.

According to reporting by Agence France-Presse, the government's official commemoration on Friday included the unveiling of a monument, a march and an address by Randrianirina at Antananarivo's May 13 Square, a longtime symbol of political protest. But several of the movement's original organizers stayed away, saying the ceremony rings hollow.

From allies to defendants

Activists told AFP that when they tried to hold a follow-up march in April 2026 to press for the reforms the new government had promised, authorities arrested six of them, several on charges of endangering state security — the same accusation activists say was routinely used against dissidents under Rajoelina. Herizo Andriamanantena, a 30-year-old agricultural engineer and one of the movement's public faces, said he spent 13 days in custody. "You fought for your country but you're treated like a criminal," he told AFP, describing conditions in detention.

Nomena Ratsihorimanana, a 36-year-old former employee of the country's National Human Rights Observatory, said his arrest turned violent: an SUV rammed his motorbike before he was taken into custody, and he was held for five days. Both he and Andriamanantena said they lost their jobs after their detentions.

"It's thanks to us taking to the streets ... that they're in power today. It's a betrayal."

That assessment, voiced to AFP by activist Felana Andriatahina, was echoed by Elliot Randriamandrato, an administrator of the Gen Z Madagascar Facebook page that once had roughly 200,000 followers at the movement's peak, who dismissed Friday's official events as pointless. A lawyer representing several of the detained activists, Maromanana Aliarivelo, said the security charge used against them is "always a way of saying 'shut up.'"

Madagascar's government has not publicly responded in detail to the activists' accusations, and Randrianirina has previously defended his administration's record, pointing to a population — roughly 70 percent under age 30, per UNICEF figures cited by AFP — that had pinned enormous hope on the transition. In March, Randrianirina dismissed his prime minister and cabinet amid continuing pressure over the pace of reform, a reshuffle critics say has done little to change the security establishment's approach to protest.

The rift underscores a pattern seen in other recent African transitions, where soldiers who intervened alongside popular uprisings have been slower to hand power back or loosen security controls than the movements that cheered their arrival expected. Rights advocates have raised concerns about the trajectory since early this year, and Friday's dueling narratives — an official ceremony versus activists' boycott — suggest the tension is unlikely to ease soon.

Madagascar is due to hold its next presidential election in 2027, a vote that will test whether the interim government intends to fully return the country to civilian, elected rule or further entrench the military's role. For now, the activists who helped end one government say they are watching a new one closely, and warily.