MASVINGO, Zimbabwe
A convoy carrying Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader was attacked by suspected ruling party supporters on Monday, his party said.
Nelson
Chamisa “did not get injured although his close protection officers and
security details were injured” and hospitalised, Fadzayi Mahere, spokeswoman
for the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance (MDC-Alliance), told AFP.
The party
said around 200 villagers, suspected to have been mobilised by the ruling
Zanu-PF, barricaded roads and hurled rocks at their cars in the southern
Masvingo region.
“This
political violence is cause for extreme concern and a clear act of desperation
by a bankrupt, illegitimate regime that has failed,” it added in a statement.
The party
said Chamisa was on his way to meet community leaders in the Masvingo area when
the convoy was attacked.
Before the
incident, anti-riot police had raided and dispersed a meeting at the private
residence of the party’s local leader in the area.
Political
tensions are rising in Zimbabwe before general elections due in 2023 in which
Chamisa is expected to mount his second challenge for the country’s top job
against President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Late last
month, 19 people, including 10 journalists, were arrested during a protest in
front of the electoral commission in Harare where preparations were underway
for the second polls since Robert Mugabe was deposed in a coup in 2017.
Mugabe, who
died in 2019, was deposed by Mnangagwa.
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