Zimbabwe: Fears grow for the safety of abducted Human Rights activists as repression grows

There are fears for the safety of
Jestina Mukoko (left), director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) who was abducted from her home in Harare on December 3 when fifteen armed men in plain clothes broke into her family home. Her son witnessed the abduction.

Two of Mukoko’s colleagues were seized from their offices on December 8. Their whereabouts are also unknown. In the last six weeks, 22 opposition or civil rights activists have been seized and not heard from since.


The ZPP, a human rights organization has been documenting human rights violations by the Mugabe regime and its henchmen.
Human rights have drastically deteriorated in Zimbabwe, Caritas Internationalis reports.

People are being indirectly denied food and clean water, health care, and education. The police and army have shot illegal diamond miners, while more than seventy people have been arrested at trade union protests.
Reportedly, civil society activists have been detained after peaceful protests and human rights advocates have been systematically targeted and detained...

Please take this online action demanding the release of Jestina Mukoko.
A recording of an interview with Jestina Mukoko when she visited Ireland is available via Trocaire. The interview was conducted by George Hook on Newstalk

Starving Zimbabweans mix cow dung with their food

Zimbabwe's official inflation rate stands at 231,000,000%. In all probability this is an underestimate of the real inflation rate. The Zimbabwean Dollar is practically worthless. It is estimated that more than 80% of the country's population lives on less than $1.5 dollars a day whilst 50% is chronically malnourished. Cholera has spread from the cities to rural areas whilst an anthrax outbreak has also been reported in Hurungwe 300km north of the capital, Harare. Local government services have in many cases collapsed. Raw sewage frequently seeps out onto streets and there are widespread sanitation problems.
Now comes a report from Caritas which states that Zimbabweans are mixing cow dung with their food.

Zimbabwe's economy, agriculture, its education and healthcare systems have virtually collapsed. Caritas staff in rural Zimbabwe are reporting that families are mixing their dwindling food supplies with cow dung to stave off hunger. Caritas Internationalis Secretary General Lesley-Anne Knight said, “Our staff say that people in Zimbabwe are dropping dead on the streets from Cholera. They’ve witnessed people mixing cow dung with what’s left of their food to make it go further. This is poverty at its most dehumanising.”

Caritas aid operations are planning to ramp up across the country with hunger likely to increase after poor harvests. A Caritas survey in the areas it works in October found 70 to 90 percent of households going hungry depending on the area and the rest on the brink of starving. At least 5.1 million people are facing starvation out of a population of 13 million people. Nearly 14,000 cases of Cholera have been reported. It’s unknown how people living with HIV and AIDS are surviving without either the necessary medicines or the necessary level of nutrition that is key to the effectiveness of anti-retroviral treatment.......

The international community must maintain the pressure on Zimbabwe for an end to this crisis. We must also prepare ourselves for the implosion of the country and the catastrophe that will mean in terms of human suffering across the region. Zimbabwe’s neighbours must address the xenophobia directed at Zimbabwean refugees in their own countries.....

Mugabe clings to power whilst the international community stands idly by.