President of the Comoros returns to office for the first time since the attack

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

In the video, Assoumani, with a thick bandage on the left side of his forehead, is seen smiling as he gets into a car and reaches the presidential palace.

He greeted advisers 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 complex, but reporters were denied access.

The 65-year-old president has not been seen since he was injured by a young soldier on Friday during the funeral of a religious leader in Salimani-Itsandra, on the outskirts of the capital Moroni.

The government said his injuries were “not serious” and he was doing well.

But his unusual absence from the religious Mawlid celebrations in Moroni, an important event in the small Indian Ocean archipelago with its approximately 870,000 predominantly Islamic inhabitants, raised questions.

One of Assoumani's advisers and a diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity that the Comoros leader had cancelled his participation in the UN General Assembly, which was due to begin in New York on September 22.

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