The following is excerped from the Country Studies--Area Handbook program of the U.S. Department of the Army. The original version of this text is available at the Library of Congress.
Full index of Country Studies-Madagascar
Madagascar
NATIONAL SECURITY
Armed Forces: Popular Armed Forces (including
aeronaval
forces--consisting of navy and air force), Presidential
Guard. In
1994 army had about 20,000 personnel, navy about 500
including
100 marines, air force about 500.
Military Budget: In 1994 estimated at US$37.6
million.
Major Military Units: Army in 1994 had two
battalions,
one engineer regiment. Army equipment included twelve
light
tanks, reconnaissance vehicles, armored personnel
carriers, and
some towed artillery. Navy had one patrol craft and three
landing
craft. Air force had twelve combat aircraft, no armed
helicopters.
Paramilitary: In 1994 about 7,500 gendarmerie,
including maritime police.
Data as of August 1994
This is excerped from the Country Studies--Area Handbook program of the U.S. Department of the Army. The original version of this text is available at the Library of Congress.
Full index of Country Studies-Madagascar
Almost all pictures on this site were taken with a Konica Minolta
Recent articles
Madagascar fires mapped with Google Earth in real-time Every year as much as one-third of Madagascar, one of the planet's most biodiverse islands, goes up in flames. Now a new tool gives scientists the ability to monitor and track Madagascar's fires in real-time through the Internet.
UNESCO lists rainforest parks of Madagascar as Heritage sites (7/2/2007) UNESCO has listed six rainforest parks in Madagascar as World Heritage sites. The announcement comes as the Indian Ocean island nation has moved aggressively to protect its biologically-rich forests from further degradation.
Conservation is saving lemurs and helping people in Madagascar (5/7/2007) Madagascar, an island nation that lies off the coast of southeastern Africa, has long been famous for its unique and diverse species of wildlife, especially lemurs--primates found nowhere else on the planet. In recent years, the island country has also become world-renowned for conservation efforts that are succeeding in spite of extraordinary pressures from a poor population that relies heavily on forest burning for basic subsistence. A large part of this success is due to the early efforts of Patricia Wright, a primatologist who has been working in the country for more than 20 years. Wright led the effort to launch the country's leading protected area and helped Madagascar become a leading global example of conservation despite its economic adversity.
