'Army murders and rapes citizens during internet shutdown' Jonathan Moyo says

Professor Jonathan Moyo claims that on Friday during the internet shutdown managed to talk to MDC Vice President Morgan Komichi to ascertain the damage that is being done by the security forces during the crackdown that is happening.

Moyo says Komichi revealed that the country has been taken under siege and the MDC is inundated with SOS messaged from citizens reporting murder, rape, arrests and beatings.

Find Moyo's full statement below:

Perhaps by some divine coincidence I need not explain, earlier I had a deeply worrying chat with MDC Alliance Vice President Senator Morgan Komichi who's in Harare over a cell phone line. I cannot live with my conscience without sharing what Senator Komichi told me.
 Senator Komichi said the second total Internet shutdown was effected around 10pm yesterday. The military and Zanu PF militia used that Internet shutdown along with nightfall to unleash untold horror upon residents of high density suburbs in all cities across Zimbabwe!

Senator Komichi said while Bulawayo and Harare are the most affected, all cities and towns in the country are suffering the same assaults. He said he and his colleagues have been overwhelmed by desperate SoS messages of killings, torture, rape, injuries and abductions!

Senator Komichi said the besieged high density areas have run out of food; there's no access to treatment or transport for the injured; there's widespread internal displacement of persons and the Internet shutdown has made affordable communication next to impossible!

As reported to Senator Komichi and his colleagues, a notably insidious stain of the Army's siege of Zimbabwe's high density areas is that the marauding military units are carrying out their dastardly acts with armed ZanuPF milita gangs, some of them in army uniforms!

The systematic involvement of Zanu PF militia gangs in the military onslaught on residents in high density areas under the cover the Internet shutdown, especially at night, has raised grave concerns given the fact that only non ZanuPF residents are being targeted!

Under the false guise of containing demonstrations against Mnangagwa's cruel hike of fuel prices, the Army and ZanuPF milita gangs are now carrying out a CLEANSING OPERATION in high density areas, reminiscent of gukurahundi, targeting perceived regime opponents!

The Army and ZanuPF siege of Zimbabwe's high density areas under the cover of the Internet shutdown raises key legitimacy questions:
1. Who deployed the Army to besiege high density areas and under what law?
2. Who authorized the Internet shutdown, under what law?

As I listened to Senator Komichi's cracking and emotionally drained voice over the  phone, it became clear to me that Zimbabwe no longer has a constitutional government that's bound by the rule of law and which understands that its first duty is to protect the citizens!

I asked Senator Komichi what he and his colleagues are doing about the SoS messages they are getting from the besieged residents of high density areas across the country. He said they're helpless because they're grounded and besieged themselves. They need urgent help!

While Sadc and the AU see the situation in Zimbabwe as demos caused by Mnangagwa's hike of fuel prices, the reality is that the price hike and demos are symptomatic of a constitutional crisis that has become humanitarian. Engaging now than later will save lives!