Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina has sacked all his ministers, his office said days after he criticized some of their performances as “below par” and weeks after officials said they had thwarted a plot to kill the former coup leader.

Rajoelina’s office gave no reason for the dismissals in a statement issued late on Wednesday. However, on Sunday, Rajoelina Andry said the performance of some ministers was unsatisfactory.

“Like in a football team, you have to change when there are failures in government,” he said in comments on national television. In addition, he added that there will be a change and this concerns those who do not carry out the work entrusted to them.

Meanwhile, last week, a senior prosecutor said Madagascar had arrested 21 more suspects, including 12 military personnel, in connection with a plot to kill Rajoelina and topple the government. Six people, one of them a French citizen, were arrested last month on suspicion of involvement in the plot, after what officials said was months-long investigation in the Indian Ocean Island.

Madagascar, an impoverished former French colony of 26 million, 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. He was 35 years of age when sworn in, making him the youngest president in the country’s history and the youngest heads of government in the world at that time.