| Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020 | |
Coup attemptCountry forums / Africa / Madagascar | ||
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11776570 Kira | ||
Mmmm, it was always on the cards with the boy being so unpopular. Back to square one then............... Dave | 1 | |
............or perhaps not! Reading the BBC report through to the end, you get the impression that nobody is actually taking any notice of the colonel behind the "coup". We'll just have to watch this one and see what develops. No reason yet to cancel my travel plans, at any rate. | 2 | |
There's a lot going on, but it's being predominantly reported by the French news wires! This just came out ... Kira | 3 | |
Just hearing on AlJaz that they plan closing the airport tomorrow .. but the President is saying he's staying on ... stalemate? Kira | 4 | |
Hi All, I had plans to travel to Madagascar next week, expecting to touch down in Antananarivo on Thursday 25th NOV. Can anyone give any information on how the political situation will affect travellers re: airports, visas, safety or anything else. Jeff Theys | 5 | |
The report on the wire quoted at #3 seems to be a declaration of what the officers involved would like to do, rather than what they've actually been able to achieve. BBC World Service reporters on the ground are saying that everywhere is calm, there's no heightened military presence on the streets at the moment, no abnormal activity at the presidential palace. They also report that the base where Colonel Andrianasoavina and his fellow officers are situated has been surrounded by other military units who are (at least for the moment) standing by the Transitional Authority. As far as closure of the airport is concerned, information at Paris CDG says that all flights into and out of Tana are operating to schedule and they know of no closure. Jeff, although you'll obviously want to keep an eye on developments, this is beginning to have the appearance of a blip. I hope it stays that way. Friends and contacts that I've spoken to on the phone (mainly in the north east) tell me that there's nothing unusual going on. One thing is certain, though: this is the last thing that Madagascar as a whole and its tourism sector in particular need. Enough people have been put off going there as it is, and there'll be many more like Jeff who'll be asking themselves if it's wise to go. My travel arrangements for my next trip are in place, and it'll take a lot more than this to make me even think about changing them. | 6 | |
Keep up to date with the BBC Dave | 7 | |
I'm flying to Antananarivo next Wednesday for a short (10 day) trip. Good to hear that things are calm (for the moment at least). When the troubles happened last year, were they mostly confined to the cities? If things do get out of hand while I'm there, would staying at Perinet or Nosy Boraha be a good idea? I was planning a reasonably relaxed holiday but wanted to spend a few days in Antananarivo as well, hopefully the situation won't get so bad that I'd have to leave the city straight away. | 8 | |
It's really very good to have postings from people like #9 who are there in Tana right now. And it's very reassuring to know that their experience matches mine in the past and things don't change. I landed in Tana the day after the shootings in 2009, and apart from the curfew that was then in force, everything was as usual. A couple of weeks later, I walked in complete safety around central Tana with the group I was responsible for, visiting the market at Analakely and so on - this at a time when the British FCO was publishing warnings putting Tana on the same level as Baghdad! There was tension then, but it wasn't directed at us and people were very glad to see us, all other vazaha having made themselves very scarce. I'm very glad to read that LS13's experience is similar - their advice to "keep calm and carry on" is much more sensible than anything you're going to read on foreign ministry websites. For example the British FCO website has got hardly anything right since the instability began. Happily, it seems like the standard advice still applies - give demonstrations a wide berth, don't travel the main roads at night because of the bandits, but otherwise do what the majority of Malagasy do and carry on as normal. | 9 | |
The effects on flights at Ivato seems to be very uneven at the moment - today's (20.11.) Air France flight to Paris left on schedule at 01.30, but the Air Mad flight due to leave 40 minutes later was cancelled - with the consequent cancellation of today's return flight from Paris. Not clear what we should make of that. | 10 | |
Seems to be over | 11 | |