Two suspects arrested in Zimbabwe over Mnangagwa rally blast

Zimbabwean police have arrested two suspects over a grenade blast that killed two people and injured 47 others at a campaign rally for President Emmerson Mnangagwa last month, local newspapers reported on Wednesday.

Mnangagwa, who replaced veteran leader Robert Mugabe in a bloodless coup in November, has said he suspects dissidents from his own party were behind what he called an assassination attempt in the southeastern city of Bulawayo.

Police had picked up two suspects and were looking for others, Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga said, according to the state-owned Herald newspaper and other publications.

“We continue to appeal for more information which may enable us to bring to book whoever had a hand in this nefarious act,” Matanga reportedly told officers in Bulawayo.

The privately-owned NewsDay newspaper said the suspects had since been released. The police force was not immediately available for comment.

Mnangagwa said last month he believed the attack had been carried out by the G40 group – a faction in the ruling ZANU-PF party which wanted Mugabe to be succeeded by his wife Grace.

He did not accuse Grace Mugabe of any involvement in the attack.

Zimbabwe’s Chamisa worried about opposition clampdown after rally blast

REUTERS