GWANDA WOMAN ABDUCTED AND TORTURED

Habakkuk Trust Information Department

In a recent case of politically motivated violence, a 32 years old Gwanda woman was on Monday abducted and tortured by alleged youth militia and war veterans in Silonga, Ward 15 before being released the next day.

Narrating her ordeal to Habakkuk Trust, the woman (name withheld) says ‘ZANU PF youths and war veterans came to my homestead, handcuffed me and beat me with an iron bar on the forehead after which they dragged me to their base within the farm and I was beaten severely all over the body and released the next day in the evening’.
The visible shaken and traumatised woman also revealed that her assailants took away her identity particulars, clothes and medication which they threw into the toilet.

The woman who is an MDC-T supporter said she was beaten for her affiliation with the party and accused her of being an ‘MDC-T daughter in law’.
After her release on Tuesday evening, the mother of two children, a Grade 4 girl and Grade 1 boy sought transport from well-wishers who took her to Gwanda and then Bulawayo where she was accommodated by a Pastor. The Pastor then took her to Habakkuk Trust offices for assistance.
‘As I was running away through the bush I noticed that there were many of them on the road and this made me hide for safety’ narrates the lady who did not report the matter to the Gwanda Police because of fear.

Habakkuk Trust has through its linkages with other civic society groups, managed to advocate for the woman to get immediate medical attention and sought shelter for her and her two children.