Malawi - December 2023

Following the Reserve Bank of Malawi’s decision to devalue the national currency (kwacha) by 44 per cent, political activist Bon Kalindo led protests against the government’s economic policies in the towns of Zomba, Karonga, Blantyre and Mangochi in late November. The protests in Zomba and Mangochi turned violent, as some in the crowds threw stones at police and looted shops. Police interfered with the work of a journalist reporting on the protest in Mangochi, Raphael Mlozoa of the Zodiak Broadcasting Station (ZBS), as they seized his phone and deleted photographs he had taken of the police response to the protest. ZBS filed a complaint against the police for their interference with Mlozoa’s work. Kalindo was arrested twice in early December and charged separately for inciting violence in the two towns.

Sources: The Nation, Malawi24, Committee to Protect Journalists, CIVICUS