Is it safe to travel in Madagascar?

Last update: 26th October 2025

Is it currently safe to travel to Madagascar?

First things first: Travelling in Madagascar is currently possible without disruption. No protests or unrest are currently expected. There are no curfews or other travel restrictions in place.

There is currently no travel warning from the Foreign Office for Madagascar. Since the former president fled Madagascar in mid-October 2025, there have been no demonstrations or further protests. The situation has completely calmed down. Only various peaceful celebrations have been held in the city centre of Antananarivo. Ivato International Airport in Antananarivo is open as usual and is served by all airlines. Areas visited by travellers, such as national parks and protected areas, were never targeted by protesters and were not affected by the unrest. All unrest has so far been concentrated exclusively in city centres, which are not generally good places for travellers to stay.

Basic information about travelling in Madagascar

Large cities such as Ambilobe, Antananarivo and Toliara in particular have to contend with high levels of poverty and population density, which lead to increased crime. This is not a new development, but has been the case for years. In these urban centres, it is generally not advisable to be out at night or to walk alone during the day with camera equipment, possibly wearing jewellery openly, or to leave valuables openly in your vehicle. These are basic rules that should not be neglected even in large European cities. In addition, the extreme south of Madagascar has been difficult to travel to for some time now due to the presence of gangs of (cattle) thieves. The Madagascan police have been struggling to get these gangs under control for years.

Outside of cities and within national parks and reserves, travelling is safe as long as you follow basic safety rules. Trips to smaller hut villages to observe animals are no more dangerous than any trip in Europe or the United States. It is highly recommended to travel as a group or individually with guides from an experienced travel agency and to use rented cars with drivers. Taxibrousse are a very high-risk means of transport. Within large cities, you should not travel alone after dark or use vehicles to travel between cities. However, most drivers will refuse to do so anyway, and cars without drivers are virtually impossible to hire in Madagascar.

Please do not let sensational headlines deter you from travelling safely in Madagascar with experienced guides, preferably organised by companies that have been working on the island for many years.

What is the story behind the unrest in 2025 and the president’s escape?

A brief background: Madagascar has been one of the poorest countries in the world for decades. President Andry Rajoelina came to power in a coup in 2009. His re-elections were viewed very critically by the opposition parties. In the 2023 presidential elections, a large number of candidates boycotted the election due to allegations of corruption and fraud. Rajoelina had taken French citizenship in 2014, which is a violation of the Madagascan constitution and was only discovered in 2023. In recent years, Rajoelina has repeatedly displayed a very luxurious lifestyle, which has been heavily criticised by Madagascan influencers and opposition politicians. Rumours repeatedly linked Rajoelina to around 200 kg of stolen gold bars belonging to the state.

 

Current events: In September 2025, there were persistent water supply failures in the Madagascan capital Antananarivo for over 14 days. In addition, the state-owned electricity and water supply company Jirama repeatedly cut off the power in Antananarivo for hours at a time. In some cases, there were power cuts throughout the whole night. On 18 September 2025, two Madagascan politicians in the Senate of Anosy publicly called for mass protests against corruption, water shortages and power cuts. A movement of young people formed on social media under the name ‘Gen Z Madagasikara’ and joined the calls for protest. They used a skull from the manga One Piece as their emblem, replacing the straw hat with a Madagascan Betsileo hat.

On 24 September 2025, demonstrations scheduled for the following day in Ambohijatovo (Antananarivo) were banned. Meanwhile, President Rajoelina was in New York attending the UN General Assembly. Nevertheless, the announced demonstrations and protests took place in several major cities in Madagascar on 25 September. The gendarmerie in Antananarivo attempted to block access to the announced demonstration site. When this proved unsuccessful, the gendarmerie instead attempted to disperse the demonstration by force. Tear gas and rubber bullets were used.

The demonstrators then vented their anger by setting fire to car tyres and overturning and setting fire to a rubbish container to create a makeshift roadblock. Akorondrano station, one of three cable car stations in the city, was damaged by arson. The cable car project had been promoted for months by President Andry Rajoelina as a prestige project and cost an estimated 152 million euros – right next to the poorest people in the world. At the Tana Water Front shopping centre, property damage was caused in the form of smashed windows, which led to looting of the affected shops. In the evening, a night-time curfew was imposed on Antananarivo, Mahajanga, Toamasina, Antsirabe and Toliara. At the same time, countless videos were shared on social media, including footage of violent riots in Nepal, which were taken and disseminated by various media outlets without permission. The actual extent of the riots on the ground was either greatly exaggerated or simply misrepresented. The international press took little notice due to a lack of journalists on the ground.

On 26 September 2025, President Rajoelina dismissed the Minister of Energy and Hydrocarbons. Gen Z announced further protests for 27 September, this time starting from the Ankatso university campus (Antananarivo). The gendarmerie attempted to disperse the demonstrators with gunfire and tear gas. The same thing happened two days later, this time when the students tried again to reach Ambohijatovo. The first calls for the president’s resignation were heard. In response, President Rajoelina announced the dissolution of the government on 29 September and dismissed the prime minister. He stated that he would appoint a new prime minister within the next three days, with every Madagascan allegedly being allowed to submit suggestions. The protests continued over the next few days, but were confined exclusively to the city centre. In Antananarivo, private vigilante groups were formed to patrol at night to prevent further looting and damage to property. Some schools in the city centre suspended classes for a few days. A total of 22 people are said to have been killed during the unrest, including students in Diego Suarez and looters in Tana. The international press began to report on the unrest in Madagascar, albeit hesitantly at first.

On 6 October, military general Zafisambo was appointed as the new prime minister. The appointment led to renewed calls for protest by Gen Z on social media, as he was a general very close to Rajoelina and not, as announced, a ‘new beginning’ selected from ‘thousands of CVs submitted’. Rajoelina spontaneously invited people to a ‘national dialogue,’ but Gen Z considered it a mere farce as long as the gendarmerie continued to fire tear gas at peaceful demonstrators. During the three-hour event, the president announced that he would voluntarily resign if he did not get the power outages in Antananarivo under control within a year. Gen Z responded by saying that he had already had 16 years to do so – since the 2009 coup that brought him to power in the first place. Gen Z issued an ultimatum: Rajoelina should resign by 9 October, otherwise they would call for a general strike.

On 11 October, the so-called CAPSAT unit (Corps d’armée des personnels et des services administratifs et techniques) of the Madagascan military declared that it would no longer support the president and would join the Gen Z protest movement. Following a public speech by the head of CAPSAT, Colonel Michaël Randrianirina, the military unit marched to the historically significant Place du 13 Mai in Antananarivo. It was greeted with cheers by demonstrators. On the same day, the military chased the gendarmerie down Independence Avenue before they also joined the protest movement, largely peacefully. Abroad, the military takeover was perceived as a coup d’état. Rumours circulated that President Rajoelina had barricaded himself in the French embassy.

On 12 October, a helicopter was spotted flying from Antananarivo to the island of Nosy Boraha (St. Marie) on the east coast of Madagascar. Shortly after its arrival, a French military aircraft picked up a person on the island and flew them out of the country towards La Réunion. Rumours quickly spread that this person was President Rajoelina. As was later confirmed, the president had indeed fled to La Réunion on the same day and then on to Dubai. Among other things, he maintains a luxury residence there on the famous Jumeirah Beach.

On 14 October, Madagascar’s National Assembly voted 130 to 1, with one abstention, to remove Rajoelina from office at a special session convened at short notice. The Madagascan Constitutional Court proposed Colonel Michaël Randrianirina as interim president. The colonel declared that all state institutions except the National Assembly would be dissolved.

Colonel Randrianirina was sworn in as interim president on 17 October 2025. He is tasked with managing the transition until the next democratic elections and the establishment of a civilian government. So far, he has mainly announced his intention to make the electoral system fairer. Until now, only around 11 million of Madagascar’s nearly 30 million inhabitants have been able to vote in elections – in future, every Madagascan with an ID card shall be allowed to vote. Meanwhile, former President Rajoelina has been stripped of his Madagascan citizenship.