Tear gas fired during running battles between police and vendors yesterday in Mzuzu suffocated students at Katoto Secondary School and Mzuzu CCAP Primary School, some of whom were rushed to Mapale Health Centre for treatment.
Riots broke out following week-long disagreements between vendors and their leaders on whether they should hold demonstrations against the rising cost of doing business.
The main vendors’ market in Mzuzu, also known as Zigwagwa, was the most volatile as protesters set tyres on fire, ripped down President Lazarus Chakwera’s billboards and threw stones at the police who responded by firing tear gas.
The running battles went back and forth from the Shoprite roundabout to the Reserve Bank of Malawi building before spreading into surrounding communities of Masasa, Katoto, and Chiwanja where the protesters fled to.
Mapale Health Centre spokesperson Lovemore Kabaghe was yet to comment, but one of the facility’s administrators (name withheld) said they received 28 cases of students who had suffocated from the tear gas.
He said: “Some are being brought into the treatment room unconscious. But our staff are assisting them and we have treated most as outpatients.”
At Saint John of God Hospital, their programmes manager Christopher Mhone said protests affected service delivery after teargas canisters landed inside the facility’s perimeter fence.
“We could not attend to new patients nor administer psychiatric services to patients at the facility,” he said.
A teacher at Katoto Secondary School Evelyn Kunkeyani, who escorted students to the clinic, said police fired tear gas on their campus on suspicion that rioters were there.
“The tear gas disrupted studies. Teaching has been suspended for today, and students were sent back home when the situation became a little calmer. About 20 students were taken to the clinic for respiratory issues,” she said.
Samson Munthali, a resident who works for a hardware shop in Mzuzu Central Business District (CBD), was hit in the head by a teargas canister, but was treated as an outpatient at the health centre.
Police, who had arrested at least 10 people by 5pm, said they treated the anarchy within the CBD as riots, not demonstrations, since there was no notice to the district commissioner.
Northern Region police spokesperson Maurice Chapola, however, denied firing tear gas into school campuses.
He said: “Tear gas is driven by wind. There is no way our officers can target schools even if protesters were hiding on their campuses.”
Meanwhile, organisers of demonstrations disowned the protests, saying they were conducted without approval from the organising committee.
In Zomba, vendors in the city delivered their petition to Zomba District Council’s offices to be forwarded to the Office of the President and Cabinet for action.
However, soon after the petition was delivered, running battles between the police and the protesters erupted, which also led to the firing of tear gas.
The chaos began as the protesters wanted to seek shelter under the shop verandas due to heavy downpours, but the police fired teargas in fear of break-ins.
—Additional reporting by EUNEAS ZINYENGO and HOLYACE KHOLOWA, Staff Writers
