Third coup in three months on breakaway Comoros Island
A military leader ousted in the third coup attempt in three months on the breakaway Comoros island of Anjouan has seized the airport in a bid to regain power.
Commander Mohamed Abubakar, the head of a three-man junta, was sacked yesterday.
It had first been reported that Abubakar had overthrown the junta he set up after deposing the island’s self-proclaimed president, Lieutenant Colonel Said Abeid Abderemanein, on August 9.
‘‘Commander Abubakar wants to regain power. He has seized the airport ... there was some shooting near the airport,’’ said John Centell, an American engineer working on the island.
‘‘People are off the streets.’’
It was not clear whether anyone was in overall control of the island in the Indian Ocean off Mozambique.
