Percy Zvumoya

The police station teems with scores of aid workers, journalists and displaced foreigners from Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique. The victims of the xenophobic attacks are dishevelled and dirty, having slept in the open at the police station since Sunday. Some have managed to rescue a bag or a bicycle, but most escaped with only the clothes on their bodies. Now they long to be among familiar people who speak familiar tongues.

A British diplomatic source in Harare has described reports that China is scaling down its presence in Zimbabwe as a "gross exaggeration". China has moved in to fill the vacuum left in Zimbabwe by the West and has signed a number of agreements and secured several trade deals.