PROTESTS BREAK OUT IN ZIMBABWE AS ECONOMIC CRISIS SPIRALS

People run at a protest as barricades burn during rainfall in Harare, Zimbabwe January 14, 2019.

HARARE (Reuters) - Protesters barricaded roads and burned tyres in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare on Monday, as anger over the worst economic crisis in a decade spilled onto the streets and piled pressure on President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

olice fired teargas to contain unrest in several Harare suburbs and Zimbabwe’s second city of Bulawayo, two days after Mnangagwa announced a massive fuel price hike in an effort to contain a runaway currency crunch.

Cash shortages have plunged the southern African nation’s economy into disarray, threatening widespread social unrest and undermining Mnangagwa’s efforts to win back foreign investors sidelined under his predecessor Robert Mugabe.

Everyday life is getting increasingly tough with the price of basic goods spiralling and medical supplies in short supply.

Motorists wait for hours to fill up at petrol stations where soldiers are often deployed to break up fights over who is next in line.

News of the 150 percent increase in fuel prices was greeted with shock in Zimbabwe where unemployment is over 80 percent. The government sets fuel prices via the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Agency.

Hundreds of residents in the townships of Epworth, Mabvuku and Mbare, all opposition strongholds, protested by setting tyres alight and blocking roads with stones after the main labour union called for a three-day strike starting on Monday in response to the price increase.

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