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Mugabe Wages Retribution Campaign After Losing the Election: Hundreds Flee for “Safety”

By Constance Manika |

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -



Wellington (left) and his wife Tariro barely escaped with their daughter and two friends. Photograph by Ephraim Nsingo.
In the early hours of April 25th, Tariro Gweru and her husband Wellington awoke to a deafening knock on their bedroom hut. Wellington says he identified the frantic voices of his two friends, Simon Takavada and Misheck Dzikamai, got up and quickly opened the door.

As his two friends made their way breathlessly into his house, Wellington knew there was something seriously wrong. Simon and Misheck indeed had bad news: while coming home after having a beer, the two spotted trucks packed with ZANU PF youths, war veterans and soldiers making their way to their village.

In the weeks following the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s (ZEC) announcement that the MDC party had won the house of assembly, an orgy of violence linked to ZANU PF swept through Muzarabani (more than 400 kilometers outside Harare near the Mozambican border). The architect of this reign of terror is Edward Raradza, who won the house of assembly seat on a ZANU PF ticket unopposed.

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