LUSAKA: Zambian President Edgar Lungu on Friday called for unity among political groups ahead of talks between the government and the opposition aimed at reconciliation after a political crisis earlier this year.
The leader of the opposition United Party for National Development (UPND), Hakainde Hichilema, was arrested with five others in April and charged with plotting to overthrow the government after his convoy failed to make way for Lungu’s motorcade.
The case stoked political tensions in Zambia, a major copper producer and seen as one of Africa’s more stable and functional democracies, following a bruising election last year.
Hichilema was freed from prison in August after the state dropped the charges, to pave the way for dialogue between the two sides following mediation by Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland.
Scotland’s special envoy Ibrahim Gambari is in Zambia and has separately held talks with Lungu, Hichilema and other opposition leaders.
In an address at the opening of the national assembly, Lungu said Zambians could disagree and quarrel but would always remain one. “The factors that unite us are much greater than those that seek to divide us,” he said.
Opposition UPND members of Parliament, who boycotted Lungu’s last address, attended Friday’s session, saying their attendance would give confidence to the process of dialogue.
“The UPND MPs took this decision in the interest of the country in view of the forthcoming political dialogue,” their spokesman Jack Mwiimbu said in a statement.
Zambian president urges unity as govt, opposition prepare for talks
Zambian president urges unity as govt, opposition prepare for talks
Burkina jihadist attacks on army leave at least 10 dead
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast: Suspected Islamist militants attacked an army unit in northern Burkina Faso Sunday, the latest in a series of alleged jihadist attacks that have killed at least 10 people in four days, security sources told AFP.
The west African country, ruled by a military junta since a 2022 coup, has been plagued with violence from militants allied to Al-Qaeda or the Daesh group for more than a decade.
Social media has been awash with speculation that the spate of attacks may have killed dozens of soldiers, but AFP has been unable to independently verify those claims.
The junta, which seized power on the promise to crack down on the violence, has ceased to communicate on jihadist attacks.
On Sunday, militants carried out a major attack on a military detachment in the northern town of Nare, two security sources told AFP.
The previous day, the Burkinabe army’s unit in the northern city of Titao was “targeted by a group of several hundred terrorists,” one of the sources said.
While the source did not give a death toll for either attack, they said part of the military base in Titao had been destroyed.
The interior minister of Ghana, which borders Burkina Faso to the south, said the government had “received disturbing information from Burkina Faso of a truck carrying tomato traders from Ghana which was caught in a terrorist attack in Titao.”
Jihadist ‘coordination’
According to the same security source, another army base in Tandjari, in the east of the country, was also attacked Saturday, and several officers killed.
“This series of attacks is not a coincidence,” the source said. “There seems to be coordination among the jihadists.”
A separate security source told AFP that a “terrorist group attacked the (military) detachment in Bilanga,” in the east of the country, on Thursday.
“Much of the detachment was ransacked,” the source said, giving a toll of “about 10 deaths” among the soldiers and civilian volunteers fighting alongside the army.
A local source confirmed the attack, adding there was damage in the town of Bilanga, and that the assailants had stayed at the scene until the following day.
Despite the junta’s vow to restore security, Burkina Faso remains caught in a spiral of violence.
According to conflict monitor ACLED, the unrest has killed tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers since 2015 — and more than half of those deaths have come in the past three years.
