Struggle for Control Hits the Comoros

MORONI, Comoro Islands —  The Supreme Court of the Comoros said Saturday that it had deposed President Said Mohamed Djohar, but the government said Djohar was still in office and called the move illegal.

Information Minister Mohamed Adamo said that Djohar, 71, would address the nation on state radio soon to reassure the people that he was still in power.

Adamo said Djohar, who quickly returned to the capital from vacation on the island of Anjouan, held a special Cabinet meeting which denounced the Supreme Court’s action as “anti-constitutional.”

He also met a representative of the French embassy. The Comoros, an impoverished group of islands off Africa’s southeast coast, is a former French colony.

Adamo and Interior Minister Taki Mboreha said on local radio that the decision by the court violates the constitution. He added that the president is in “excellent health.”

The Supreme Court had earlier said that Djohar was not lucid enough to hold office and promptly appointed its president, Ibrahim Ahmed Halidi, interim head of state of the Indian Ocean archipelago.

It called on commanders of the armed forces to declare their allegiance to Halidi and a council of six others.

Said Cheikh Moustoifa, head of the opposition Comoros Democratic Front, contacted by telephone, called the Supreme Court move an attempted coup d’etat.

He said the Supreme Court’s bid was seditious and “could only aggravate the country’s divisions and let it slip into civil war.” But Adamo and residents in the capital said the situation was calm.