By Paul Nyathi|Hundreds of Marange Villagers on Monday fought running battles with police after the villagers went on a mass demonstration demanding answers on the diamonds revenue.
The villagers raised concerns on the lack of development in their area after billions of dollars worth of diamonds were mined from the area in the last decade.
ZimEye.com sources amongst the villagers indicated that heavily armed police officers blocked them from proceeding with their demonstration claiming that it was an illegal demonstration.
The villagers however insist that they had notified the police on their intention to demonstrate and the police gave them a verbal clearance of the demonstration.
“It looks like the police thought that the demonstration was going to be a flop but when they saw the large number of people who turned up for the demonstration they immediately blocked it by issueing a letter declaring it illegal,” said the ZimEye.com source.
When the residents resisted the police order a skirmish ensued which has since seen several people injured among them women and children.
“Police and soldiers fired teargas and live bullets into the crowd and several people have been injured including women and children,’ said the source.
“We are still going through the running battles and we are not yet in a position to say exactly how many people are injured or arrested,” the source told ZimEye.com at the time of writing.
The villagers started gathering in their village before midnight on Sunday night intending to march to Mutare where they were going to express their concerns to government.
“People started walking at midnight and at about dawn trucks full of police officers and soldiers arrived to monitor the march. When they saw the numbers growing they ordered us to disperse.”
“The villagers resisted the order leading to police firing bullets and teargas,” said the source.
Marange is home to reach diamond reserves that have attracted huge investment into the country. However, the village has very little to show in terms of development as none of the investors meaningfully ploughed back to the community.
Former President Robert Mugabe in 2016 claimed that the country can not account for over $15 billion of the diamond revenue from the area.
The government recently removed all the mining companies from the diamond fields and blocked off even the villagers from tapping the rich resource.
One of the demonstrating villagers’ demand is the uplifting of the government restriction order demanding that government allocates them claims to mine the diamonds.
The events in the area are still developing and ZimEye.com will provide further details as they unfold.