Update - Southern African Leaders Meet To Discuss Lesotho Crisis

Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders have decided to send a team to investigate the murder of a former military commander that plunged the Kingdom of Lesotho into a political and security crisis.



The decision came during the regional block's meeting in the South African city of Pretoria on Friday that discussed finding solutions to the ongoing crisis in the southern African mountainous kingdom.



"The SADC summit will send a team to investigate the murder of Brigadier Maaparankoe Mahao," South African President Jacob Zuma announced at a short media briefing late Friday.



Mahao was a former commander of the Lesotho Defense Forces (LDF), who was shot dead last week by a group of men dressed in army uniforms, allegedly while trying to arrest him. Three opposition politicians have also fled from Lesotho in the aftermath of the incident.



"This summit will assemble a team to begin its task in Lesotho. We condemn the killing of Brigadier Mahao," Zuma said.  



"I am glad that we have come to very good decisions," Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who chairs the 14 member country SADC regional block, said.



The meeting, which is still underway, will receive reports from South Africa's Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa who visited the country this week to assess the situation.



Members of a fact finding mission appointed by SADC to Lesotho will also deliver their reports to the Double Troika summit.



Lesotho's current Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili is also among regional leaders attending the summit.



The Kingdom of Lesotho has been in chaos since former prime minister Tom Thabane reshuffled the army's leadership following an aborted August 2014 coup. - Ankara