Lesotho Mutineers May Have Ousted Chief

The Lesotho army chief’s announcement that he will step down - broadcast across the tiny southern African kingdom - was made “under duress,” a U.S. diplomat said Saturday.

Lt. Gen. Makhula Mosakeng, who made his announcement Friday night on state radio, apparently had not officially resigned.

Raymond Brown, the U.S. Embassy diplomat, said in a telephone interview that dozens of mutinous soldiers holed up in military headquarters since Friday had isolated most of the army’s senior commanders, and Mosakeng may have been forced out.

Brown described the insurrection as “an internal army matter.”