Zimbabwe indefinitely suspended all work by aid groups on Thursday and police held a group of United States and British diplomats for several hours.
The White House on Thursday called Zimbabwe’s detention of United States and British diplomats for several hours ”outrageous”.
Zimbabwe’s currency plunged to a new record low on Thursday, trading at an average one billion to the US dollar on a recently introduced interbank market.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe will respect the will of voters if they end his 28-year rule in a run-off election against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, the state-run Herald newspaper reported on Monday. Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in the March 29 presidential poll but failed to win an absolute majority.
Conditions are neither safe nor fair yet for a run-off election in Zimbabwe in which the opposition hopes to unseat President Robert Mugabe, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) said on Wednesday. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is to face Mugabe in the second round after failing to secure an absolute majority in a disputed poll.
Before Zimbabwe’s disputed elections in March, Z-billion could get you a room in a five-star hotel. Today, Gabriel Matope hopes it will buy him two litres of cooking oil — if he can find some. More than six weeks after the poll, Zimbabwe’s economic crisis is deepening every day and pushing ordinary citizens to despair.
Zimbabwe will not invite election observers from Western countries to monitor a presidential run-off unless they remove sanctions, state media said on Monday. Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said Zimbabwe would not bow to pressure to invite election monitors from Western countries and the United Nations.
Regional mediator and South African President Thabo Mbeki arrived in Zimbabwe on Friday for talks on the country’s disputed elections ahead of a possible run-off that has raised concerns of further violence. The South African leader’s ”quiet diplomacy” approach towards the crisis in Zimbabwe has triggered criticism at home and abroad.
Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) will not participate in a presidential run-off against Robert Mugabe, a top party official said on Thursday, after reports of escalating violence deepened a post-election crisis. The MDC believes its leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the outright majority in the March 29 election.
Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change have contested half the results of the March 29 parliamentary election, state media said on Wednesday, extending a stalemate that has triggered widespread violence.