Police in Swaziland beat hungry people with batons as they
tried to get free food during King Mswati’s 50th birthday
celebration.
‘There were loud screams from the crowd as batons
started flying as the officers bashed some people,” The Times of Swaziland reported.
It described the crowd as ‘frenzied’.
The newspaper reported on Monday (23 April 2018) that
free food was being given out at the King Sobhuza II Memorial Stadium in
Nhlangano when word spread that there would not be enough food for everyone.
‘Immediately people began pushing and shoving with
some falling to the ground in the process,’ The Times reported.
It happened as people gathered to watch a speech from
the King transmitted on a big screen. In Swaziland seven in 10 of the 1.1
million people live in abject poverty with incomes less than the equivalent of
US$2 per day. At Royal occasions free food and other gifts are distributed.
The newspaper also reported there was a ‘stampede’ as
thousands of people struggled to claim gifts of t-shirts and kangas.
Later, King Mswati, who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan
Africa’s last absolute monarch, wore
a suit weighing 6 kg and beaded with diamonds at a banquet for 700 people. Centrepiece
was a birthday cake with 52 layers.
The
World Food Program has reported 350,000 people are in need of emergency
food assistance in Swaziland, with 640,000 potentially affected by some degree
of food insecurity at the peak of the lean season.
See also
SWAZI
KING WEARS SUIT OF DIAMONDS
NO
NAME CHANGE YET FOR SWAZILAND
KING
UNILATERALLY RENAMES SWAZILAND
NOTHING
TO CELEBRATE FOR MOST SWAZIS
No comments:
Post a Comment