The president of Comoros is ‘slightly injured’ in a knife attack, his office says

MORONI, Comoros — The president of the Indian Ocean island nation of Comoros was “slightly injured” in a knife attack while attending the funeral of a religious leader on Friday, his office said. One other person was also hurt trying to protect him, authorities said.

President Azali Assoumani’s injuries were not serious and he had returned to his home, his office said in a statement. It said the attacker was arrested by security forces and is in their custody, but gave no details on the attacker’s identity or any more information on the circumstances of the attack.

The attack happened in the town of Salimani on the outskirts of the capital Moroni.

Government minister Aboubacar Said Anli said Saturday that a civilian was injured during the attack while attempting to protect the president. There was no immediate information on the extent of the injuries sustained by the civilian.

Assoumani was reelected as president of Comoros in January in a vote denounced by opposition parties as fraudulent. At least one person died in unrest following the election.

Assoumani, 65, is a former military officer who first came to power in Comoros in a coup in 1999. He served a first term as president from 2002 - 2006 and was elected again in 2016.

He has been the leader since and extended his presidency into a fourth term this year after changing the constitution to remove term limits and abolishing a system that saw the presidency rotated between Comoros’ three main islands. He has been accused of cracking down on dissent and banning peaceful protests.

The country, which is made up of an archipelago of islands off the east coast of Africa, has experienced more than a dozen coups or attempted coups since its independence from France in 1975.