Madagascar president expands govt cabinet after assassination bid

Rajoelina: sacked his cabinet on Wednesday.

Madagascar’s president named a new finance minister in an enlarged cabinet, days after sacking all ministers for what he said was poor performance and weeks after the reported foiling of a plot to kill the former coup leader.Rindra Hasimbelo Rabarinirinarison will become finance minister, Andry Rajoelina said in a televised address late on Sunday, one of 11 women promoted to a cabinet expanded to 32 ministers, vice-ministers and secretaries of state from 25.Rabarinirinason was previously a senior official in the finance ministry and before that headed the Indian Ocean island country’s public procurement commission.“You were chosen because you are seen as being able to do better and achieve more,” Rajoelina told the new appointees.Among those reappointed were the ministers of defence, security and communication – three key portfolios Rajoelina relied on especially following the alleged coup foiled plot to assassinate him in July.Ten ministers from the previous cabinet were reinstated in their posts.Rajoelina also retained his previous prime minister, 60-year-old Christian Ntsay.Rajoelina increased the size of the cabinet by splitting up some ministries including the agriculture, livestock and fisheries portfolio.The newcomers include a former presidential adviser, Patrick Rajoelina (unrelated to the head of state), who is taking on the foreign affairs portfolio.Sofia Ratsiraka, daughter of ex-president Didier Ratsiraka who died in March, was appointed minister responsible for the crafts sector.Prosecutors said on August 2 that 21 more suspects, including 12 military personnel, had been arrested in connection with a plot to kill Rajoelina and topple the government.Six people, one of them a French citizen, were arrested in July on suspicion of involvement in the plot after what officials said was a months-long investigation.Madagascar, an impoverished ex-French colony of 26mn, has a history of political violence and instability.Rajoelina, 44, was sworn in as president in 2019 after a hotly-contested election and a constitutional court challenge from his rival.Madagascar is also suffering its worst drought in 40 years.The number of acutely malnourished children there is expected to quadruple to at least half a million, the United Nations warned in July.