Coup reported in Anjouan

Soldiers took over the capital of the breakaway Comoran island of Anjouan on Monday in a bloodless coup against Mohamed Bacar, who had seized power on 9 August, news organisations said. Reuters reported Radio Anjouan as saying that local politician Ahmed Abubakar Foundi had been installed as president. The soldiers were led by Captain Combo Ayouba, who has taken the role of defence minister in the new government, the report said. Anjouan broke away from the Islamic Federation of the Comoros in 1997.

Since then, political stability has eluded the island and the rest of the Indian Ocean state, which also includes Grande Comore and Moheli. AFP reported that according to a statement broadcast on radio, Foundi’s appointment was designed to “guarantee the future, protect the population from any adventurism and consolidate the ongoing national process which guarantees the widest autonomy of each island”. The same statement said that Ayouba, an Anjouanese who is deputy head of the federal army, had been given command of the military in Anjouan, AFP reported. “Confusion has reigned for some time, there is no authority.

Inertia and personal quarrels are paralysing the (ruling) praesidium,” the statement said, referring to a collective presidency of three gendarmerie majors that had included Bacar. It added that the lack of cohesion among Anjouan’s soldiers “posed a grave threat to the island and a real danger to peace and security”. All this amounted to a “coup d’etat”, Bacar told AFP, adding that men loyal to him were organising a “riposte”. “According to the information we have now, the coup d’etat was remote-controlled from Moroni (Grande Comore),” he was quoted as saying.