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Villagers flee ruling party supporters’ terror

    JOHANNESBURG

    The Zimbabwe civic and rights group, ZimRights has said that more than 6,000 villagers had fled the countryside into the capital, Harare and other cities as armed groups of liberation war veterans and supporters of the ruling ZANU-PF party stepped up a terror campaign against opposition supporters in rural areas.

    ‘The Financial Gazette’ said on Thursday that ZimRights offices in Harare, Mutare, Kwekwe and Bulawayo had been inundated by villagers seeking shelter and help. “Some of the villagers claim that their relatives have been tortured and murdered,” ZimRights director Bidi Munyaradzi told the newspaper. He added, however, that his organisation has not gone to the affected villages to see and verify the claims.

    Munyaradzi said he expects the number of people fleeing to increase. He added that ZimRights was recording the information from the villagers for possible future litigation against their attackers.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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