Thousands flee Robert Mugabe's terror mobs

By Peta Thornycroft in Harare
Last Updated: 12:52am BST 21/04/2008

Mobs loyal to President Robert Mugabe have forced about 3,000 refugees to flee their homes as a national terror campaign gathers pace across Zimbabwe.

Gangs from the ruling Zanu-PF party are ranging across rural Zimbabwe, hunting down supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Their victims are fleeing into the capital, Harare, seeking safety and treatment.

Chingatayi Chimomo, 13, was separated from his parents when a Zanu-PF gang burned down his home, 120 miles north-east of Harare.

Chingatayi's father, John, was an MDC parliamentary candidate. "We ran into the forest and saw about 50 people burning our house down and taking all our things. My father was a candidate and he told us to run away and he ran away to another place," said the boy.

"It was midnight, a lot of people came and two had guns, and they put fire and broke everything and they took all our property. My father knows I am here but I don't know when we will go home. There is nothing left at home."

Chingatayi was safe yesterday in a Harare hospital. The staff will not send him away, even though wards are overflowing with victims of Mr Mugabe's thugs.

Nelson Chamisa, a spokesman for the MDC, said that about 3,000 people had been displaced. He said that four opposition supporters had been murdered since the election's first round on March 29 and hundreds assaulted.