Harare (AFP) – Fanuel Mapfumo has been unable to lift heavy objects since a Zimbabwe police officer fractured his left arm as he was covering a story last August.
The 28-year-old journalist was filming a banned protest in the capital Harare when it happened. Opposition supporters were voicing their discontent with the country’s ailing economy when police descended on the crowd with batons.
Mapfumo, who works for the Zim Morning Post, said they ordered him to stop filming. “I identified myself as a journalist,” he told AFP.
“But the next thing I remember is being dragged into a group of police officers who beat me all over my body.”
Rights groups have accused Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa of persistently violating human rights since he took office in 2018.
In August last year six people died after the army used force against civilians protesting a delay in the announcement of election results.
In January, the army attacked protesters marching against a hefty fuel price hike, leaving 17 dead.
And as Mnangagwa has tightened his stance on dissent, journalists have also suffered repercussions.
Source: yahoo.com
