African press review 21 July 2017

Security forces on high alert in Abidjan for Francophonie Games after theft of large stocks of ammunitions from a police station, while Kenya's opposition bows to court ruling on the printing of ballot papers for next month's elections.

We begin with concerns about the security situation in Côte d'Ivoire where gunmen, some of them in military uniforms, attacked the National Police Academy in Abidjan and stole stocks of weapons late on Wednesday night.

The Nigerian Tribune says, the attack came just hours after President Alassane Ouattara reshuffled key security posts, in a power struggle with former rebel leader Guillaume Soro now, President of the National Assembly and heir apparent to the ailing leader, come elections in 2020.

The attack is the latest outburst of violence after months of military mutinies. According to the Nigerian paper, it occurred two days before Côte d'Ivoire hosts 4000 athletes and officials from 53 French-speaking countries coming to attend the 8th Francophonie Games.

Meanwhile the official Fraternité Matin leads with an appeal for greater discipline in the military from the country's new defence minister Hamed Bakayoko as he presided at the graduation ceremony at the army headquarters Thursday.

According to the paper, Bakayoko observed that every time soldiers behaved in a dishonorable manner, they were violating their oath of total loyalty to the commander in chief.

The evening Ivorian publication "Infodrome says there isn't any doubt in the minds of Ivoirians that the attack on the Cocody police academy is linked to the battle to succeed President Alassane Ouattara.

Le Depêche d'Abidjan says the country seems to be heading to the return of ex-President Henri Konan Bedié to power in 2020.

According to the paper, the scenario would have several advantages, for the New Forces of Guillaume Soro currently President of the National Assembly and who is also from the North like President Alassane Ouattara.

If Bedié is re-elected it argues Soro could stay out of the spotlight and come back unchallenged as Bedié's natural heir when power reverts to the north under the unwritten rule.

This according to La Dépêche, is an idea which is maturing in the minds of members of a projected new alliance to be formed by the former ruling PDCI party and the former northern New Forces rebellion.

Infodrome believes Guillaume Soro is already working on such a scenario after he announced at the end of a two-week European tour that he intended to go present an apology to ex-President Laurent Gbagbo currently facing trial at the Hague-based International Criminal Court for atrocities committed during the 2010-2011 Ivorian crisis.

Gbagbo is currently awaiting a ruling on his possible release for health reasons, after an appeals court ruled on Wednesday that judges at the ICC erred on several points by refusing the 72-year-old an interim release for health reasons.

In Kenya, Daily Nation welcomes a decision by the National Super Alliance of opposition leader Raila Odinga to respect a ruling by the country's Court of Appeal ordering a Dubai-based company to go ahead with the printing of presidential ballots for the August 8 general elections.

According to the paper, the Court overturned a High Court decision blocking the printing of the papers by Al Ghurair Printing and Publishing Company on grounds that the tender had been awarded without public participation.

The Nation says the decision will ease fears over the possible cancellation of elections and clear the way for political parties to focus on campaigns and for elections body on overseeing the smooth organization of the polls.

Uganda's Daily Monitor comments about a surprise visit to Tanzania by Burundi strongman Pierre Nkurunziza, his very first foreign trip in more than two years.

The paper reports that Nkurunziza arrived the northwest Tanzanian town of Ngara on Thursday with a heavily armed escort for the meeting with his Tanzanian counterpart John Magufuli that had been kept secret up to the last moment.

The Monitor says Magufuli is meeting Nkurunziza as an emissary of the East African Community (EAC), in a bid to persuade him to take part in inter-Burundian dialogue without conditions