Zim troops accused of more beatings in crackdown

Soldiers beat people on the streets of Zimbabwe’s capital and second city Bulawayo overnight, residents said, hours after President Emmerson Mnangagwa promised to investigate a security service crackdown on anti-government protesters.

There was no immediate comment from the government or from the military which kept up patrols and checkpoints in both cities on Wednesday.

Accusations of excessive force have been denied.

Lawyers and activists say police and soldiers have killed at least a dozen people, wounded scores and arrested hundreds since demonstrations began 10 days ago following a hike in the price of fuel.

Police say three people died during the protests.

Residents in two Harare townships and a neighbourhood in Bulawayo said soldiers beat people walking in the streets on Tuesday night.

“Soldiers just appeared in a truck and started beating up people at the shopping centre.

“They told everyone to go home and sleep,” one resident from Glen Norah township in Harare, who declined to be named, said. “I was lucky because I managed to escape but this is really cruel.”

Mother-of-two Thabitha Mpofu said some of the security service members out in Bulawayo wore black ski masks.

“I saw them beating pedestrians last night. People are now scared to go out at night.” –