Harare (dpa) - Bread queues have resurfaced in many parts of Harare after police destroyed makeshift shops as part of an ongoing blitz on illegal structures, the Daily Mirror reported on Tuesday.
Many Zimbabweans living in low-income suburbs depended on tuckshops - unofficial grocery stores - for their bread supplies. But these have been demolished as part of Operation Restore Order, which has also seen at least 200,000 people made homeless.
Residents of eastern suburbs like Mabvuku and Tafara are now having to queue long hours outside established supermarkets for bread, which is in short supply across the country because of a worsening wheat shortage.
''Tuckshops were really assisting us, said Mabvuku resident Tapiwa Chiwetu. In richer suburbs, shops are limiting bread sales to two loaves per customer.
The controversial Operation Restore Order was launched last month. The government said it was nothing more than a long-overdue attempt to clean up Zimbabwe's cities and restore them to their former glory.
But the opposition Movehe Daily Mirror said that some people who had lost their homes in Tafara suburb were sleeping out in the open.
Local doctors' group Zimbabwe Doctors for Human Rights says it believes as many as one million people may have been made homeless by the blitz. dpa rt ms
Disclaimer
- Deutsche Presse Agentur
- Copyright (c) dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH