Two "assailants" and a policeman were killed and two people injured in violence in Comoros Thursday, a minister said, after a defeated presidential candidate bidding to unseat the president was arrested. The Indian Ocean nation is in the grip of a political crisis following President Azali Assoumani's victory in Sunday polls that his opponents say was rigged and led rivals to unite against him.
One of those hurt Thursday was a policeman who suffered minor injuries while another "assailant" was badly hurt following an exchange of gunfire near a barracks in the capital Moroni, Interior Minister Mohamed "Kiki" Daoudou told journalists.
"The situation is under control, an investigation is underway," he said, urging people not to assume the bloodshed was linked to the opposition leader's arrest.
Soilihi Mohamed is a widely respected former colonel who was named head of an opposition transitional authority hoping to unseat Azali.
A group who attempted to help former major Faissoil Abdou Salam, jailed for plotting against Azali, to escape from Moroni prison were responsible for the exchanges of fire, a source said ahead of Daoudou's briefing.
Civilians deserted the streets of Moroni, police fired teargas and taxis stopped working, an AFP correspondent saw, during two hours of gunfire around the Kandani base.
"The March 24 vote was a deceit, a shameful charade... We will organise resistance," Mohamed, the leader of the opposition "transitional administration", said Thursday, calling for "civil disobedience" if the poll result was not overturned by April 3.
He remains in police custody, according to a military source.
His transitional body is backed by all 12 of the defeated presidential candidates and has pledged to manage a "peaceful transition" and "resolve the post-election crisis".