From the article:
Authorities in Zimbabwe have killed at least eight people and shut down the internet following protests on fuel price hikes in the past week around the country, in the most severe bout of state-mediated violence since President Emmerson Mnangagwa came to power in 2017.
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“He’s the enforcer,” said Todd Moss, an expert on the region and former State Department official now at the Center for Global Development.
“Under the Mugabe dictatorship, the police were always at the forefront, and the use of the military was there, but behind closed doors.”
To make it hard for organizers to coordinate the protests and to prevent images and video of the crackdown from seeping out and prompting international criticism, the Zimbabwean government moved to shut down internet access on Jan. 14.
