Eswatini protests: nurses refuse to treat police after colleagues are shot

Eswatini’s nurses refuse to treat police officers as they accuse them of shooting colleagues at a pro-democracy rally on Wednesday.

Protests in favor of democracy in Africa’s last absolute monarchy, formerly known as Swaziland, have engulfed the country since June.

The government, which denies that the security forces used live bullets, has now banned all demonstrations.

But on Friday, nurses were protesting in three hospitals, reports said.

The Swazi News Twitter account shared a video showing nurses demonstrating at the Nhlangano Health Center in the south of the country.

Earlier this week, health workers and other public sector employees, who went to petition parliament calling for better living conditions, were met with an “unprecedented show of strength,” said the Swaziland Democratic. Nurses Union (SDNU).

Thirty nurses were injured when police and army opened fire, the union added.

Describing the security forces as a “race of vipers”, SDNU called on all nurses “in solidarity with the affected nurses not to treat a police officer”.

Authorities said no one was shot and that police were trying to disperse a demonstration that they believed would turn violent, the public broadcaster from neighboring South Africa reports.

Eswatini’s Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku told SABC that police have been deployed to protect the property.

“There is nothing true in any of this – there are cops shooting people on the street,” he said.

A delegation from the regional grouping, the Southern African Development Community, is currently in the country to meet King Mswati III, as well as some involved in the democracy movement.

“The images that come from Eswatini are really very disturbing and we can see that the political temperature is very hot,” Jeff Radebe, who leads the delegation, told SABC before leaving.

Health workers have joined students, transport workers and others in a wave of protests calling for major constitutional reforms that allow them to elect their own leaders.

The demonstrations were also fueled by the strong inequalities in the country. According to the World Bank, just under 60% of the population lived in poverty in 2016.

Student protests led to the indefinite closure of all schools on Monday, a move that was criticized by UN Secretary General António Guterres.

Some internet services were also briefly shut down Wednesday in response to the wave of demonstrations.