[dropcap]H[/dropcap]arare – Zimbabwe is on edge as army tanks are seen outside the capital a day after the army commander threatened to “step in” to calm political tensions over the president’s firing of his deputy.
The Associated Press saw three tanks with several soldiers in a convoy on a road heading toward an army barracks just outside the capital, Harare.
While it is routine for tanks to move along that route, Tuesday’s timing heightens unease in this country that for the first time is seeing an open rift between the military and 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe.
Mugabe last week fired Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa and accused him of plotting to take power.
Over 100 senior officials allegedly backing Mnangagwa have been listed for disciplinary measures by a faction associated with Mugabe’s wife.
Earlier on Tuesday, Zimbabwe’s Zanu-PF youths said they were “prepared to die” in defence of President Mugabe’s government.
In a statement on Tuesday, Zanu-PF’s secretary of the youth league Kudzai Chipanga said that Zanu-PF youths did not take lightly the military’s threats.
“We as Zanu-PF youth league are a lion which has awakened and found its voice, therefore we will not sit idly and fold our hands whilst cheap potshots and threats are made against Mugabe,” Chipanga said.
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Credit :News24, Twitter