put out of action

Gen. Sylvain Ekenge, initially offered little detail about the purported putsch in the capital, Kinshasa, other than to say that the plotters and their leader had been “put out of action.”

The anonymous vandal began leaving a trail of destruction months ago in the north-east, as more and more of the cameras were put out of action.

Continuous bombardments and loud blasts could be heard in central Khartoum in the area around the defence ministry compound and the airport, which has been fiercely contested and put out of action since fighting erupted at the weekend.

The Lieutenant-Governor of the Sahel region, Rodolphe Sorgho, said the assailants behind the "despicable and barbaric attack" had been "put out of action".

Three of the four lines providing power from Ukraine's grid have been put out of action during the fighting and on Saturday the UN watchdog said the last line had also been disconnected, leaving just one lower-power reserve line from a nearby thermal plant.