Security forces in Zimbabwe kill 12 protesters in broadest crackdown on unrest in years

By Max Bearak January 21 at 8:47 AM

NAIROBI — It was midnight when soldiers threatened to burn Jennifer Mutobaya and her three teenage sons alive inside their home in the Zimbabwean town of Kadoma. Protesters had filled the streets earlier, chanting slogans and burning tires, joining a display of fury at a hike in fuel prices that is part of a broader economic collapse in this southern African country.

The scene at her home was one repeated hundreds of times across Zimbabwe over the past week as security forces launched their biggest crackdown on dissent in years.

“They took away my two sons and ordered them to clear the road that was barricaded with burning tires using their bare hands,” said Mutobaya, who is a street vendor. “I tried to intervene, and they beat me with an electric cable.”

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The door-to-door operation has led to 12 deaths, 78 gunshot wounds, hundreds of instances of assault or torture, and enough arrests to fill prisons beyond capacity, according to the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, an umbrella organization that compiles reports from observers across the country.

It comes in response to unrest and a call for a nationwide “shutdown” provoked by a government-implemented 150 percent price hike on fuel. Faith in the government of Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was cheered when he deposed longtime leader Robert Mugabe in 2017, is quickly dwindling. The potential for further unrest and widespread reports of looting that have accompanied the protests will only plunge Zimbabwe into deeper economic misery.

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