By A Correspondent- A total of 153 opposition party supporters need urgent relocation and safe housing following post-election persecution, the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum has reported.

In a statement to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights at the 77th Ordinary Session recently, the forum condemned the post-August 23-24 election violence saying: “These include abductions/enforced disappearances that lead to torture; malicious damage to property through arson, forced displacement of victims of arson; and the threats/intimidation/harassment in opposition political party strongholds, particularly of opposition political party election agents which have left victims in dire need of relocation out of justifiably fearing for their lives.”

The forum said by September 30, 2023, a total of 153 opposition party supporters, election agents and their families were in urgent need of relocation or safe housing.

The forum urged the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to exert pressure on the Zimbabwean government to immediately end the unprecedented levels of post-election victimisation in the country.

Calling for the setting up of an independent commission of enquiry into the post-election human rights violations, the forum added: “The government should also ratify and domesticate the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and its Optional Protocol.”