Zambia Deploys 1,000 Police to Quell Riots Targeting Foreigners
Source: Bloomberg
Zambia has deployed more than 1,000 police officers in the capital, Lusaka, to subdue riots targeting shops owned mainly by Rwandan nationals that left at least two people dead, police said.
“They are slowly dying down; we can’t say they’ve died out,” police spokeswoman Charity Munganga-Chanda said by phone Wednesday. “When we receive a report we move in.”
Looting started Monday in a densely populated low-income area in the west of the city of 2.5 million after crowds accused a Rwandan shop-owner of being involved in suspected ritual murders that took place nearby since last month. They quickly spread to nearby poor neighborhoods where grocery stores owned mainly by Rwandans were ransacked. By Tuesday, riots erupted in slums across the city.
The ruling Patriotic Front party said on Tuesday that as many as five people may have died in the riots. Munganga-Chanda put the death toll at two, identifying the victims as Zambians who were burned alive April 18.
Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-20/zambia-deploys-1-000-police-to-quell-riots-targeting-foreigners
Lusaka: At least two people have been burned to death in Zambia in riots targeting Rwandan-owned shops over allegations that foreigners were behind a string of ritual killings in Lusaka, police said Wednesday.
"The official number of people who have died from the time the looting started is two. These are the ones who were burned to death on 18 April 2016 in Kanyama," police spokeswoman Charity Chanda said in a statement.
Police were unable to confirm the nationality of the victims.
AFP
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/news/international/379163/two-burned-alive-in-zambia-anti-foreigner-riots-monday-police
