First Lady of Zambia Esther Lungu
LUSAKA, Feb 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Zambia’s First Lady Esther Lungu broke down in tears and fell to her knees as she appealed for an end to a spate of mysterious gas attacks that have spread across the country.
Police have been unable to catch those who have been targeting homes and schools by spraying victims with a gas that leaves them unconscious.
It is not clear what gas is being used in the attacks.
“I’m making an earnest appeal to the people that are behind this gassing – to an extent of gassing innocent schoolchildren, innocent families. It is indeed a shame,” Lungu was filmed on Tuesday telling a group of women.
She then broke down in tears.
Earlier, Zambia has deployed soldiers to suppress a wave of attacks on civilians by gangs using a special gas to immobilise their victims.
“The president has directed the army to be on the streets,” Vice President Inonge Wina told legislators last Friday during parliamentary question time in the capital, Lusaka.
The move to send the military into the streets came after the assaults prompted panicked rioting, the lynching of three suspected attackers on Thursday and a warning from the United States embassy.
The criminal gangs spray a gas that makes their targets dizzy before they attack, according to local media reports.
Police have said they are probing “incidences of malicious administering of chemical substance on innocent citizens by criminals”.
The vice president said the attacks, which initially started in the northern Copperbelt region before spreading to Lusaka, were fuelled by fake news being peddled on social media.
Details in the posts have varied, from claims of vigilante attacks against alleged perpetrators to the use of old images lifted from unrelated online reports.
The attacks have prompted the US embassy in Lusaka to issue a security alert.
“Rumors of ritualistic killings and residential gassings have led to incidents of civil unrest and vigilante justice in multiple provinces throughout the country,” it said in an alert issued on last Thursday.
“Reports of rioting and civil disturbances are increasing in some provinces, to include Lusaka.” — NNN-AGENCIES
