Malawi's leader Peter Mutharika on Tuesday fired the country's army commander whose men have in recent months protected demonstrators protesting against fraudulent elections that returned the president to office.

A statement from the presidency said General Vincent Nundwe was replaced by the former air force commander, Major General Andrew Lapken Namathanga.

Nundwe will be assigned to other duties in the public service, the statement said.

The move comes days after Mutharika dissolved his cabinet, his latest political move after his May re-election was annulled over irregularities.

In a landmark ruling last month the Constitutional Court ordered officials to hold a fresh presidential poll within 150 days in the poor southern African nation.

It is the first time a presidential election has been challenged on legal grounds in Malawi since independence from Britain in 1964.

Mutharika is attempting to quash new balloting that would require him to win more than a 50 percent majority to secure a second term.

He has refused to ratify new electoral laws and filed an appeal against the court's decision to nullify election results that had declared him the winner with just 35.8 percent of the vote.

A retired army general suggested that the army reshuffle was linked to Mutharika's uncertain political future.

"He wants to put people who work for his interests and from his home area," said the former senior official who asked not to be named.

"Discipline (in the army) will be highly compromised," the general said.

Mutharika has replaced the army chief four times since his election in 2014.

After Nundwe was appointed as army commander last June he won praise for the army's handling of six months of protests over Mutharika election victory.

The military stepped in as confrontations between police and protesters turned violent.

Zimbabwe VP in China for medical check
Harare (AFP) March 17, 2020 - Zimbabwe's vice president Constantino Chiwenga was flown at the weekend to China for medical checks, an official said Tuesday.

Presidential spokesman George Charamba told AFP Chiwenga, a former army general who led President Emmerson Mnangagwa's rise to power following a brief military takeover in 2017, "flew back to China for his medical checkup".

Chiwenga spent four months undergoing treatment in China last year and returned home in November.

Charamba said Chiwenga had suffered from fatigue in recent days explaining his absence from a function attended by top government officials at Mnangagwa's farm.

"He was feeling a bit indisposed but he was quite cheerful when he left for China on Sunday," he said.

Chiwenga, 64, was admitted in a South African hospital last year for a constricted oesophagus. He was later transferred to India when his condition deteriorated before being airlifted to China in July for further medical tests.

His return to China comes as the Asian nation is battling to contain the coronavirus which surfaced there last December and became a pandemic.

Mnangagwa last week ordered a ban on foreign trips by government officials to avoid importing the pathogen.

Zimbabwe has not reported any cases of COVID-19 but a British tourist who recently visited Zimbabwe tested positive after he left the country, according to Health Minister Obadiah Moyo.

The country's health system is in a state of disrepair with shortages of critical machinery and drugs and often short-staffed.

Those who can afford often seek medical treatment abroad especially neighbouring South Africa.

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Sweden to send troops to Mali in special forces plan
Stockholm (AFP) March 16, 2020
The Swedish government plans to send up to 150 soldiers to Mali to support a French military initiative combining special force troops from different countries. "The government has decided to put a bill to parliament... for Swedish participation" in the joint unit, the foreign ministry said in a statement. The French initiative, named Operation Takuba, aims to get military special forces from several countries accompanying Malian troops into combat. The large, mainly desert West African nati ... read more