President Emmerson Mnangagwa who came to power through a military coup in 2017 has connived with the rest of the African Union (AU) members to condemn the overthrow of constitutional governments in other parts of the continent.
Mnangagwa returned home from Ethiopia yesterday, after attending the 35th African Union Heads of State General Assembly in Addis Ababa at the weekend. Zimbabwe was elected into the 15-member African Union Peace and Security Council at the meeting.
In an interview with journalists on his arrival in Harare yesterday, Mnangagwa said the AU was worried about military coups and attempted coups in the continent.
“The issue of coups and attempted coups, five of them in the same region, is a worry to the AU,” Mnangagwa said.
“First and foremost, we are interrogating whether these are innocent coups or there is a hand behind.
“So we are dealing with that and it’s an issue that as the AU, we are worried about.
“We are saying Ecowas should stand up to the challenge in relation to what has happened.
“But as with the rest of Africa we must make sure that we condemn drastically the issues of coups on our continent.”
Sudan, Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso are the countries that have undergone coups.
In Sudan, on 25 October last year, the military, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, took control of the government in a military coup.
The Sudanese coup happened less than a month after former President of Guinea Alpha Condé was captured by the country’s armed forces in a coup after gunfire in the capital, Conakry.
On 24 January this year, the military overthrew Burkina Faso’s president Roch Marc Christian Kaboré through a coup that came amid a deepening security crisis in the country.
Mnangagwa himself came to power through a military coup that ousted late former President Robert Mugabe in November 2017. He was assisted by the Army General Constantino Chiwenga whom he appointed Vice President upon assuming the highest job. -Nehanda Radio