Reports Sudan connected to assassination plot against AU commissioner

February 24, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – South African intelligence agency uncovered a plot in 2012 allegedly masterminded by Sudan to assassinate African Union Commission (AUC) chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, according to secret spy cables obtained by the Guardian and Al-Jazeera.

Officials at the security body in Johannesburg received information on the alleged attempt and relayed the Intel to their station chief in Addis Ababa who got in touch with Ethiopian authorities to brief them on the imminent threat to the AU official.

The two sides agreed to beef up Zuma’s security detail as South African military intelligence General T. Nyembe told his colleagues that “an unnamed state” was behind the plot and warned that there had been “another alert which further pointed out a potential assassination plot … to be carried out at a different venue”.

At a meeting between security officials from Ethiopia and South Africa saw a revelation that Sudan is behind the plot. The Guardian and al-Jazeera give conflicting accounts of who pointed fingers at Khartoum or supplied the list of people believed to be the ones behind the plot.

The Spy Cables report that the director of Ethiopia’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) Hadera Abera, explained that they crosschecked the names of the plotters with “all entry points especially those bordering Sudan” but found no matches.

Another secret document showed Abera saying that in his service’s assessment, Sudan “would not carry out such operations” as it had “paid dearly in the attempted assassination of Egypt former President [Hosni] Mubarak” in 1995.

Cairo had accused Khartoum at the time of harboring gunmen who carried out the attempt on Mubarak’s life.

No possible motive was given for Sudan to seek killing Zuma who was previously South Africa’s foreign minister.

(ST)