Potential Hot Spots: Zimbabwe Loses Food, Find Guns

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Items About Areas That Could Break Out Into War

March 11, 2006: The government arrested 15 people allegedly connected with the arms stockpile found earlier in the week in the town of Mutare. All fifteen are members of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). They are also accused of belonging to the Zimbabwe Freedom Movement (ZFM), which the government says was established to overthrow the Mugabe government. At least one man arrested was identified as a former Zimbabwean military officer.

Inflation in February was 27.5 percent. January had a rate of 18.6 percent. The annual inflation rate is approaching 800 percent. Around 60 percent of working age people are unemployed. Last week, the government reported that it only had a two week supply of wheat on hand. The International Monetary fund will not provide Zimbabwe with anymore funding. Mugabe has reason to fear a revolt-- he has led his resource-rich country into utter ruin.

Zimbabwe's dictator, Robert Mugabe, is getting increasingly paranoid. His government has threatened his opponents with "physical elimination." The threat is supposed to be directed at opponents who want to overthrow his government, but knowing Mugabe, the threat was delivered to scare all opponents, even the non-violent ones. The threat came after Mugabe's security forces reported they found an arms cache in the city of Mutare on March 8th. The arms cache was small: an AK-47, seven submachine guns, some pistols, shotguns and rifles.

 

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