The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org. January 23, 2019 Zimbabwe: Popular Protests Met with Violence by Military -------------------------------------------------------- In Zimbabwe, growing unrest has been met with escalating violence, including deaths and multiple accounts of torture. Some reports put the number of Zimbabweans killed at over 12. Nationwide protests started last week, following the government's move to more than double the cost of fuel. In response, the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa ordered an internet blackout and deployed military forces to counter the uprising. This is Sheila Matindike of the Zimbabwe's Human Rights Commission describing recent attacks by the military. Sheila Matindike: "They would arrive at people's houses at night or in the early hours of the day and ask all men to go outside and lie on the ground. They would then beat up all the men, including boys as young as 11 years, and then ask them to run, or arrest them."