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Zimbabwe Army seizes power, President Robert Mugabe ‘confined to his home’
Context
- Zimbabwe is under the control of the military after its army chief warned President Robert Mugabe against purging the ruling party’s senior ranks.
What happened?
- Armoured personnel carriers and troops were deployed onto roads leading towards Harare on Tuesday, a day after army chief General Constantino Chiwenga warned the military may intervene after Mugabe fired Mnangagwa last week.
- There is a climax of a power struggle between liberation-era figures loyal to ousted vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa and forces faithful to First Lady Grace Mugabe, who is seen as vying to succeed her 93-year-old husband.
- Zimbabwean soldiers and armoured vehicles blocked roads to the main government offices, Parliament and the courts in central Harare
- Mr. Mugabe’s wife Grace had supposedly been vying to succeed Mr. Mugabe.
- Soldiers were deployed across Harare on November 14 and they seized the state broadcaster after the ZANU-PF party accused the head of the military of treason, prompting frenzied speculation of a coup.
- Mr. Mugabe has led Zimbabwe for the last 37 years.
