https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/ ... s-zimbabwe
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/ ... s-zimbabwe… a widespread breakdown of public order linked to food and fuel shortages in the impoverished country.
Access to the internet and social media was shut off for most of Wednesday, and armed soldiers were patrolling the streets of major cities as unidentified men were reported to be sweeping through poor neighbourhoods of Harare, the capital, and beating people “at random”.
Activists and other citizens reported a wave of abductions in and around Harare. In some poor neighbourhoods, groups of young men set up roadblocks and were stoning the few vehicles on the roads.
There has been rioting and widespread looting in the southern city of Bulawayo, where police have sealed off the centre, local residents said. Security forces in the city have beaten people in their homes, forced residents to remove barricades from streets and fired on looters, local witnesses said. At least one person has been shot dead.
The chaos came on the third and final day of a national strike called by unions in response to a steep rise in fuel prices ordered by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a ruling party stalwart who took power when Robert Mugabe was forced to resign after a military takeover in November 2017.
Desperation for food has forced some people to venture out in major cities but virtually all shops are closed and fuel stations empty. “I went out to buy some vegetables for my sick mother and the streets were full of sullen, hostile young men. They tried to make me buy a single mango for $15,” said one Harare resident.
Police fired teargas in the capital after a crowd tried to overrun a shopping centre that opened to sell bread. Soldiers with AK-47s took charge of the long line.
The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR), a respected NGO, said it had received reports of gross human rights violations across Zimbabwe.
Its members had attended to more than 100 patients by Tuesday afternoon, some with serious injuries. One doctor said they had treated at least 30 people with gunshot wounds, and 80 cases of serious assault.
Activists working to provide care to victims of political violence said hundreds of people had been injured, but the true total was unknown because many were too frightened to seek medical treatment.
“Things are very grim. It is very confused. No one knows what is happening,” said one veteran human rights worker.
Eight people including a police officer died during clashes on Monday, according to human rights activists.
Mnangagwa is travelling in Asia and Europe, leaving the vice-president, Constantino Chiwenga, a hardliner, in charge. Chiwenga has been blamed for the shooting by soldiers of six civilians during opposition protests days after Zimbabwe’s election on 30 July last year, and for a brutal wave of repression after the results were announced in August.
It is unclear who is conducting the raids, but their methods are very similar to those of security forces during the wave of repression following the election, which was won by Mnangagwa.
It is unclear to what extent the disorder and protests over the last 48 hours have been centrally organised.
A tweet from Mnangagwa’s account on Wednesday said he was saddened by the “wanton violence and cynical destruction” during the protests. The demonstrations amounted to “terrorism” and were “well-coordinated” by the opposition, the information minister, Monica Mutsvangwa, said on state television on Tuesday night.
The crackdown has largely targeted opposition strongholds, though the leader of the ruling Zanu-PF party’s youth wing was arrested along with six others for burning buses belonging to the state-owned transport company.
Amos Chibaya, a senior official in the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, said “unknown assailants” had attacked his home in Harare on Tuesday night and then again on Wednesday morning.
“They broke down the doors looking for me but I was not there. I handed myself in to police who have charged me with cooked up charges of inciting violence. They are looking for a way to bring the MDC into disrepute,” Chibaya said.
Evan Mawarire, a pastor and prominent social media activist, was taken from his home in Harare early on Wednesday morning.
Speaking to the Guardian moments before his arrest, Mawarire described armed police massing outside his house. “They are not letting anyone in or out except my lawyer,” he said.
Residents of Kuwadzana, a poor neighbourhood of Harare, said unidentified men had been going “door to door”. “They smashed our windows then burned out our car,” said Carol Maguwu, 27.
Relatives of Kinos Shoko, another resident, said the 56-year-old had been abducted at noon on Tuesday by unidentified men and returned to his home at midnight, very badly beaten and unable to hear or speak.
Om Monday, the MDC issued a call for calm and said it was “in solidarity with peaceful citizen action across the country today”.
Legacies of the 37-year rule of Mugabe include massive unemployment, huge government debts, an acute shortage of hard currency and a crumbling infrastructure.
The British minister for Africa, Harriett Baldwin, on Tuesday noted “worrying levels of violence” and urged restraint by Zimbabwe’s security forces.
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