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Zimbabwe: President Mnangagwa, ‘the crocodile’ escapes assassination

Emmerson Mnangagwa, the president of Zimbabwe, has escaped an apparent assassination attempt during an election campaign rally in the southern city of Bulawayo

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Emmerson Mnangagwa, the president of Zimbabwe, has escaped an apparent assassination attempt during an election campaign rally in the southern city of Bulawayo.

Local media reported that security personnel, several ministers and possibly the vice-president were hurt in the blast in the White City stadium on Saturday.

George Charamba, the president’s spokesman, told the Herald, a local newspaper, that Mnangagwa had not been injured in the attack, which occurred as the 75-year-old head of state had just finished addressing the crowd and was leaving the podium.

“Investigations are under way and more details will be given to the public. There have been multiple attempts on the president’s life over the past five years.”

Footage posted online showed Mnangagwa waving to the crowd, turning to step off the podium and walking into the open-sided VIP tent, where seconds later the explosion occurred. People ducked and screamed and smoke billowed. State television immediately cut its broadcast.

The incident came hours after a blast struck a large rally by supporters of Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, in the capital, Addis Ababa, wounding dozens of people. The coming election in Zimbabwe is the latest turning point in the most tumultuous few months in almost four decades of Zimbabwe’s political history.

In November, Robert Mugabe was forced out of power after 37 years, following a peaceful military takeover supported by the vast majority of the 17 million population.

The poll on 30 July pits Zanu-PF, the ruling party, against the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the longstanding opposition.

Zanu-PF is led by Mnangagwa, a former vice-president known as “the Crocodile” who took power when Mugabe was ousted. Polls indicate a potentially close race, but one that Zanu-PF should win. Though hard fought, the campaign so far has seen little of the violence associated with previous elections in Zimbabwe.

Past votes have been marked by systematic intimidation of the opposition and fraud, and the US and others have said a credible vote is key to lifting international sanctions.

The EU has deployed election observers in Zimbabwe for the first time in 16 years.

Few experts and analysts, or politicians, have raised the possibility that Mnangagwa might be targeted for assassination. Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second-largest city, is traditionally an opposition stronghold but there was no indication of who might be responsible for Saturday’s attack.

Politics

Congo DR: President Tshisekedi reshuffles cabinet, appoints ex-vice president, Bemba as defence minister

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Former vice president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Jean-Pierre Bemba, has been appointed as the country’s defence minister in a sweeping government reshuffle.

President Felix Tshisekedi has appointed Bemba who was detained for over 10 years for war crimes as part of an overhaul of the 57 members of government, which the president’s spokesperson said was “urgent and necessary”, in an announcement on Congo’s national television late on Thursday. No further details were given.

President Tshisekedi appointed Vital Kamerhe, his former chief of staff who was released from prison in Dec. 2021 following an embezzlement conviction, as economy minister while Nicolas Kazadi continued as finance minister.

The reshuffle is more extensive than predicted by observers. One notable commentary has been from the Director of the Congo Research Group and a Professor at Canada’s Simon Fraser University, Jason Stearns, who stressed that the exercise was “a deeply political shuffle,”

“Key positions are given to senior politicians who have large constituencies to please but little expertise in their new ministries. Kamerhe is not an economist. Bemba was a rebel but has little formal military training,” he said.

Presidential and parliamentary elections are scheduled to hold in Congo DR on December 20, 2023, kicking off a year of complex preparations in the vast Central African country, large parts of which have been overrun by armed groups.

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Confusion as Nigeria’s ruling party, APC suspends secretary to government, Boss Mustapha

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Nigeria’s ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has suspended Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government of the federation of Nigeria (SGF).

Mr. Mustapha was suspended by Gwadabawa ward, Yola north LGA of Adamawa state, as announced by Mu’azu Kabiru, chairperson of APC Gwadabawa, who said Mustapha failed to assist the party at the ward level when his attention was needed.

Kabiru said the SGF has failed to recognise the importance of the party’s executives in Gwadabawa who have worked to keep the ward united.

The suspension has however The acting chairperson of the APC in Adamawa, Samaila Tadawus, dismissed the suspension, saying that it was unconstitutional.

It should be recalled that Nigeria recently held general elections recently as President Muhammadu Buhari, who has been in office since 2015 will be completing his second term of four years by May 29.

The elections ushered a new political wave traceable to the presidential candidacy of dark-horse, Peter Obi of the Labour Party who appears anti-establishment and an appealing candidate to the demography of young voters. Obi came third at the national polls in the February 25th elections but his popularity has influenced victories for less popular candidates of the Labour Party at different levels across the country.

The opposition’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, won the Yola north LGA which is Mustapha while Aisha Binani, the governorship candidate of the APC, won the LGA but not by a wide margin during the governorship election.

Anti-party activities, that is, being engaged in activities that undermine or are detrimental to your political party, or may ruin its chances at the polls or bring it into disrepute, are common in Nigeria during election season. Perfect, the most notable in the 2023 election season was PDP’s G-5 governors who openly worked against the candidate of the party in the presidential poll.

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