The 53-year-old is in mortal danger and has been operated on several times, said the ADK hospital in the capital Malé on Friday. Nasheed was seriously injured by an explosive device on a motorcycle in the capital Malé late on Thursday when he was about to get into a car. According to the hospital, he suffered injuries to his head and chest, abdomen and limbs.
The first democratically elected president of the island nation in the Indian Ocean was treated in intensive care on Friday. A government official had previously told AFP that Nasheed’s condition was “stable”. A relative said that splinters had been removed from his lungs and liver. When he was admitted to the hospital, Nasheed was available and spoke to the doctors. A Nasheed bodyguard and a British national were also injured in the attack and taken to hospital.
Are opponents of the anti-corruption policy responsible?
An investigation into the attack has been launched, according to President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, a close ally of Nasheed. However, representatives of the ruling party MDP have already blamed opponents of Nasheed’s anti-corruption policy for the attack.
Nasheed announced that the theft of $ 90 million would be investigated by the State Tourism Promotion Agency during the tenure of former President Abdulla Yameen. There are some Islamist sleepers who may have worked with political actors in the face of the anti-corruption campaign, the MDP said.
After 30 years of autocratic rule, Nasheed became the first democratically elected President of the Maldives in 2008. In 2012 he was imprisoned after a military coup and was later allowed to leave the country to seek medical treatment abroad. Nasheed returned after his ally Solih won the 2018 presidential election. He has been President of Parliament since 2019.
Known internationally as a climate activist
But Nasheed is internationally known primarily as a climate activist. In 2009, as then President of the Maldives, he drew attention to the threatening rise in sea levels caused by global warming with an underwater meeting of his cabinet in full diving gear.