Madagascar’s President Andry Rajoelina first took power in a military-backed coup in 2009 and is now facing demands to quit from a youth-led protest movement backed by an army unit.

After the CAPSAT military contingent sided Saturday with the demonstrators who have been protesting for more than two weeks, Rajoelina warned that “an attempt to seize power illegally and by force” was under way.

Here is a look back at the 51-year-old’s accession to power in the Indian Ocean island nation, one of the world’s poorest countries.

– Took power in 2009 –

Appointed mayor of the capital Antananarivo in 2007 in his early-thirties, Rajoelina quickly established himself as the leading voice of the opposition and denounced attacks on freedoms under then-president Marc Ravalomanana.

In 2009 Rajoelina

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