Manzini – Police in Eswatini fired rubber bullets at demonstrators on Friday as they protested the killing of a top opposition leader in Africa’s last absolute monarchy.
Thulani Maseko, a prominent opposition politician and leading human rights lawyer and columnist, was shot dead by unknown attackers last week at his home in Luhleko, around 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the capital Mbabane.
Opposition groups said about 200 pro-democracy activists took to the streets to deliver a petition demanding justice for the slain lawyer to authorities in the nearby central city of Manzini.
Police said the crowd turned violent forcing officers to disperse it.
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“There was an incident during a protest march in Manzini whereby some people got injured after police fired rubber bullets after they refused to disperse and were vandalising property,” police spokeswoman Phindile Vilakati told reporters.
Lucky Dlamini, the head of a pro-democracy umbrella group, said three activists were injured.
Eswatini, a landlocked southern African country formerly known as Swaziland, stifles dissent, with political parties banned since 1973.
At least 37 people were killed during weeks of anti-monarchy protests in 2021.
Hours before Maseko was killed, King Mswati III in a defiant speech warned activists challenging him not to “shed tears” about “mercenaries killing them”.
The US and the United Nations’ human rights chief have called for an impartial probe into the killing.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Unsplash
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