{"id":415224,"date":"2017-09-06T09:32:23","date_gmt":"2017-09-06T09:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2017\/09\/06\/lesotho-army-chief-dies-in-office-gun-battle\/"},"modified":"2017-09-06T09:32:23","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T09:32:23","slug":"lesotho-army-chief-dies-in-office-gun-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/09\/06\/lesotho-army-chief-dies-in-office-gun-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"Lesotho army chief dies in office gun battle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"> <\/aside>\n<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">The head of Lesotho\u2019s army, Lt Gen Khoantle Motsomotso, and two other senior officers have been killed in a shootout at a barracks in the capital, Maseru.<\/p>\n<p>Eyewitnesses said the officers burst into the army chief\u2019s office and shot him before being killed by guards.<\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister Thomas Thabane has said the situation is now under control and has urged people to remain calm.<\/p>\n<p>Lesotho has had periods of instability marked by coups or attempted coups.<\/p>\n<p>The situation in Maseru has been described as tense with the military and police patrolling the streets.<\/p>\n<p>At a press conference, Mr Thabane said that it was with sadness that he was informing the nation about the \u201cunfortunate and untimely\u201d death of Gen Motsomotso and the two others, journalist Pascalina Kabi told the BBC\u2019s Focus on Africa programme.<\/p>\n<p>He also said that an investigation was under way to find out what really happened and why.<\/p>\n<p>There have been three elections in the past three years, the most recent being in June, with none producing a clear majority for the winning party.<\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister Thabane, leader of the All Basotho Convention, now heads a coalition government.<\/p>\n<p>In 2014 Mr Thabane fled to South Africa, fearing that he would be targeted in an assassination attempt.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a style=\"display:none\" rel=\"follow\" href=\"http:\/\/megatheme.ir\/\" title=\"\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633\">\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The head of Lesotho\u2019s army, Lt Gen Khoantle Motsomotso, and two other senior officers have been killed in a shootout at a barracks in the capital, Maseru. Eyewitnesses said the officers burst into the army chief\u2019s office and shot him before being killed by guards. Prime Minister Thomas Thabane has said the situation is now [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":415225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-415224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lesotho army chief dies in office gun battle - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/09\/06\/lesotho-army-chief-dies-in-office-gun-battle\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Lesotho army chief dies in office gun battle - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"The head of Lesotho\u2019s army, Lt Gen Khoantle Motsomotso, and two other senior officers have been killed in a shootout at a barracks in the capital, Maseru. 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Prime Minister Thomas Thabane has said the situation is now [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/06\\\/lesotho-army-chief-dies-in-office-gun-battle\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/06\\\/lesotho-army-chief-dies-in-office-gun-battle\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Lesotho army chief dies in office gun battle\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-06T09:32:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/06\\\/lesotho-army-chief-dies-in-office-gun-battle\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":219,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/06\\\/lesotho-army-chief-dies-in-office-gun-battle\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"articleSection\":[\"World\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/06\\\/lesotho-army-chief-dies-in-office-gun-battle\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/06\\\/lesotho-army-chief-dies-in-office-gun-battle\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/06\\\/lesotho-army-chief-dies-in-office-gun-battle\\\/\",\"name\":\"Lesotho army chief dies in office gun battle - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/06\\\/lesotho-army-chief-dies-in-office-gun-battle\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/06\\\/lesotho-army-chief-dies-in-office-gun-battle\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-06T09:32:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/06\\\/lesotho-army-chief-dies-in-office-gun-battle\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/06\\\/lesotho-army-chief-dies-in-office-gun-battle\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Lesotho army chief dies in office gun battle - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/09\/06\/lesotho-army-chief-dies-in-office-gun-battle\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Lesotho army chief dies in office gun battle - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"The head of Lesotho\u2019s army, Lt Gen Khoantle Motsomotso, and two other senior officers have been killed in a shootout at a barracks in the capital, Maseru. 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