Secret intelligence documents leaked to Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit reveal that spies in Addis Ababa were alerted to a plot by “an unnamed state” to kill a top African Union diplomat.
Ethiopian agents later accused Sudan of involvement in the plan to assassinate African Union Commission (AUC) chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who had previously served as South Africa’s foreign minister.
Dlamini-Zuma allegedly faced “an eminent threat” to her life in the Ethiopian capital which also hosts the headquarters of the African Union in October 2012, just days after she was appointed.
The documents show that South African and Ethiopian intelligence agencies had been unprepared for the threat, for which they blamed Sudan. The agencies admitted they did not have enough time to “neutralise the operation” or apprehend those involved.
The documents also describe how unarmed African Union (AU) bodyguards “slept in corridors for four days without food or water provided,” because the AU “did not arrange accommodation and resources for food”.