Reuters
Zimbabwe’s president dodged an apparent assassination attempt ahead of a historic election and a blast at a rally attended by Ethiopia’s new leader killed one person, rattling politics in two African nations in the midst of major transitions.
Video footage from a campaign rally held Saturday in the southwestern town of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second-largest city, showed an explosion just as President Emmerson Mnangagwa and other ruling-party dignitaries were leaving the stage. The violent blast knocked over several officials of the ZANU-PF party, sending at least one tumbling off the stage. Photos and video showed multiple people wearing party regalia injured and crying for help.
State media quoted Mnangagwa’s spokesman as saying the president, who was walking toward the spot of the explosion when it went off, was unharmed and had been taken to Bulawayo state house. The spokesman couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
The apparent assassination attempt risks igniting what has so far been a peaceful campaign in Zimbabwe five weeks ahead of the election, in which Mnangagwa is seeking a popular mandate after ousting longtime strongman Robert Mugabe with the help of the military in November. Polls suggest a close battle for the presidency between the 75-year-old Mnangagwa, who had been Mugabe’s right-hand man for decades, and the 40-year-old Nelson Chamisa, who leads the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
Earlier Saturday, one person was killed and more than a hundred were injured when a grenade was thrown into a rally in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, the country’s health minister said. Thousands had attended the rally in support of new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, whose economic and political overhauls have irked some local elites.
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