/ 23 June 2018

Zimbabwe president suggests he was target of rally blast

Police officers are seen at the White City Stadium
Police officers are seen at the White City Stadium

Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who survived a blast at a ruling Zanu-PF party rally Saturday, suggested he was the target of the attack which left one of his vice-presidents wounded.

“I am used to these attempts,” Mnangagwa said in his first comments on the explosion in the country’s second city of Bulawayo.

He said an object “exploded a few inches away from me — but it is not my time”.

One of Zimbabwe’s two vice presidents was injured during an explosion at a ruling Zanu-PF election rally which President Emmerson Mnangagwa survived in the second city of Bulawayo, state television said Saturday.

“In news just received Vice President Kembo Mohadi, Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri the Zanu PF chairperson and political commissar Engelbert Rugeje were injured in the explosion,” Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) said.

© Agence France-Presse