200 People Arrested in Zambia Riots

Zambian authorities have confirmed that more than 200 people have been arrested in connection with the riots that have taken place in Lusaka over the past few days.

There has been a lot of street riots as well as looting going on in Zambia’s capital city over the last couple of days. These riots have been linked to xenophobia, as the locals believe that many of the foreigners living in Lusaka are connected to a string of recent ritualistic murders.

Locals are looting the shops and damaging the property of foreigners – most of them Rwandan-owned shops – in what they believe is a protest against the horrific murders.

Over the past few weeks, seven people were found murder in a ritualistic fashion, with some of their body parts and organs removed.

The locals believe it is the foreigners who are responsible for the killings.

However, Zambian authorities have said that they have arrested 11 suspects in connection with the murders. It is not clear whether or not they are foreigners.

The authorities also said that they arrested more than 200 people in connection with the riots:

“…[sic] We have so far arrested 211 suspects in connection with the riots that Lusaka experienced yesterday and 11 on suspicion of being behind the ritual killings,” the Zambian authorities said.

There are around 6 500 Rwandan refugees currently residing in Zambia.