Comoros President makes first appearance since knife attack

Comoros President Azali Assoumani on Thursday chaired a government cabinet meeting in his first public appearance since being wounded in a knife attack last week, government footage showed.

Assoumani is seen in the video with a thick bandage on the left side of his forehead, smiling as he got into a car and arriving at the presidential compound.

He greeted advisors and ministers before sitting at the end of the cabinet table where he looked through files. 

AFP correspondents saw the president's motorcade enter the presidential compound, but reporters were not allowed in.

The 65-year-old president had not been seen since September 13 when he was wounded by a young soldier during the funeral of a religious leader in Salimani-Itsandra, on the outskirts of the capital Moroni. 

The government said his wounds were "not serious" and that he was fine.

But his unusual absence from the Mawlid religious celebrations in Moroni, an important event in the small Indian Ocean archipelago of around 870,000 people who mostly practise Islam, raised questions. 

One of Assoumani's advisors and a diplomat told AFP, on condition of anonymity, that the Comoros leader had cancelled his attendance at the UN General Assembly, due to begin in New York on September 22 -- an event he rarely misses. 

"I can assure you that he is doing very well physically and mentally. It's the bandage on his head that's bothering him... aesthetically," Msaidie Houmed, Assoumani's political adviser, told AFP on Wednesday when asked about the reasons for his absence.

"It's the same Azali we had before" he was the victim of an attack, he said.

The government previously declined to detail the president's injuries, saying only that he had needed "stitches to his scalp". 

A witness to the attack, who declined to give his name, told AFP: "The assailant was like a madman, he threw himself at the head of state", who was on a terrace in the home of the deceased religious leader.

"He first attacked him with a knife before beating him up," he said.

"Without the person who intervened, I strongly believe that the head of state would not have escaped."

- No autopsy -

The day after the attack Public Prosecutor Ali Mohamed Djounaid announced that the 24-year-old soldier, who was arrested immediately after, was found dead in prison the next morning in unclear circumstances. 

Two investigations have been launched, one into the president's attack and another into the man's cause of death, the prosecutor said.

He said the body had been immediately handed over to the family, suggesting that no autopsy had been requested by the public prosecutor's office. 

The attacker was quickly buried a few hours later according to Muslim tradition. 

Assoumani, a former military ruler who came to power in a coup in 1999, was re-elected president in January after a disputed vote that was followed by two days of deadly protests. 

He has been accused of growing authoritarianism.

In August, he granted new powers to his son, in a move that critics said was a step towards consolidating the family's rule over the small African island nation.

Nour El Fath Azali, who is Assoumani's eldest son, was appointed secretary general of Comoros in July.

The new powers mean he must approve all decrees issued by ministers and governors.

Critics said that it elevates his role to that of de facto prime minister.

Assoumani's opponents said the January election was marred by fraud, but court challenges were dismissed.

One person was killed and several others injured in the violence that erupted in the aftermath of the election in the southern African nation.