The number of soldiers deployed on the streets of South Africa has doubled to 5,000 as the army and police struggle to quell days of looting and violence.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is considering boosting troop numbers even more, as at least 72 people have been killed in the worst unrest in the country for years.
And some citizens are arming themselves to protect their property and businesses from the rampage, which has hit two of South Africa‘s nine provinces – KwaZulu-Natal, where Durban is located, and Gauteng, which includes Johannesburg.
In the Mobeni area of Durban, several food warehouses and a rice depot have been “invaded” and “ransacked”, according to Sky News correspondent John Sparks.
He described the scene as “absolute chaos” and “out of control” as looters have been “carting off” what was inside the facilities.
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He said they had brought cars and trucks to fill up their vehicles with what they could get their hands on.
There has been mass looting and rioting in multiple locations in the city and elsewhere in the country, including in some areas of Johannesburg, such as Vosloorus.
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The unrest was sparked by the imprisonment last week of former president Jacob Zuma, which has spiralled into days of looting.
Many of the deaths were caused by chaotic stampedes as thousands of people stole food, electric appliances, alcohol and clothing from stores, police said.
Thousands of soldiers have been deployed to support officers and try to restore law and order.
But Sparks said the army was nowhere to be seen as people were just “helping themselves”.
He added: “This is really out of control.”
Extraordinary scenes in Mobeni in Durban as thousands of people loot food warehouses and a rice depot … people are hungry but here, people have brought trucks and cars and stuffed them full with anything they can seize. pic.twitter.com/Z34uHMveqh
“What we have here is something quite extraordinary. People have broken into food warehouses and they are stripping them, they are emptying them.”
Among the items being stolen were mattresses, kitchen appliances and boxes of sardines.
In eastern Johannesburg, some shopping centres continued to be targeted, while in Soweto township, south of the city, police and army units patrolled malls and streets.
Acting minister in the presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, said the government was working with the consumer council to ensure food security.
Police roadblock in Durban run by a handful (5) officers … looters are stopped but they don’t have the infrastructure to arrest them… pic.twitter.com/fguN8Ff9wr
She claimed putting troops on the streets was beginning to have the desired effect.
She said: “We are getting positive reports that the deployment of additional law enforcement agencies is starting to reap positive results as we are seeing less incidents of violence and looting reported.”
She added: “5,000 members of the national defence force have already been deployed on the ground. Law enforcement officers, supported by the military, are working tirelessly to ensure the country returns to peace and stability and that those responsible for the instability are quickly brought to book.”
Sparks had earlier been at another mass looting location where people told him they were “hungry”.
Lots of South Africans have lost jobs in the pandemic, including during lockdowns, and they were living “very much a hand-to-mouth existence”.
Sparks said COVID restrictions “have hurt people here”.
More than half of the country’s 60 million people are living in poverty, with an unemployment rate of 32%, according to official statistics.
Violence broke out after Zuma began serving a 15-month sentence for contempt of court.
He was jailed for refusing to comply with a court order to testify at a state-backed inquiry investigating corruption claims while he was president from 2009 to 2018.
The murder trial of a former senior politician in Kazakhstan who has been accused of beating his wife to death has attracted the attention of the nation, sparking calls for new legislation tackling domestic violence.
Shocking footage showing businessman Kuandyk Bishimbayev, Kazakhstan’sformer economy minister, beating his wife at a family restaurant has been streamed online from the court.
The case has touched a nerve among the public as tens of thousands of people have signed petitions calling for new laws to hold those guilty of abuse to account.
Why is the case so high profile?
The trial of Bishimbayev, 44, is the first in the country to ever be streamed online – making it readily accessible to the 19 million people in Kazakhstan.
The former politician was already well known, having been jailed for bribery in 2018. He spent less than two years of his 10-year sentence in prison before he was pardoned.
Bishimbayev was charged with torturing and killing his wife after her death last November. For weeks, he maintained his innocence but admitted last month in court that he had beaten her and “unintentionally” caused her death.
Saltanat Nukenova, 31, was found dead in November in a restaurant owned by one of her husband’s relatives.
Disturbing CCTV footage shows the defendant, a father of four, dragging his wife by her hair, and then punching and kicking her.
Hours after it was recorded, she died of brain trauma.
Bishimbayev’s lawyers initially disputed medical evidence indicating Ms Nukenova died from repeated blows to the head.
They also portrayed her as prone to jealousy and violence, although no video from the restaurant’s security cameras that was played in court has shown her attacking Bishimbayev.
According to a 2018 study backed by UN Women, about 400 women die as a result of domestic violence in Kazakhstan every year, although many go unreported.
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Tens of thousands of people in the country have signed a petition calling for harsher measures against perpetrators of domestic violence in the wake of Ms Nukenova’s tragic death.
The signatures resulted in senators approving a bill which toughens spousal abuse laws last month – dubbed “Saltanat’s Law”.
Aitbek Amangeldy, Ms Nukenova’s brother and a key prosecution witness, told the Associated Press he had no doubt his sister’s tragic fate has shifted attitudes about domestic violence.
“It changes people’s minds when they see directly what it looks like when a person is tortured.”
Police in riot gear have raided Columbia University and arrested pro-Palestinian protesters occupying one of its buildings.
Around 30 to 40 people have been removed from the Manhattan university’s Hamilton Hall, according to police.
The raid came hours after New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the demonstration at the Ivy League school “must end now”.
He also claimed the demonstration had been infiltrated by “professional outside agitators”.
University bosses said they called in the New York Police Department (NYPD) after protesters “chose to escalate the situation through their actions”.
“After the university learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalised, and blockaded, we were left with no choice,” a university spokesman said in a statement.
“The decision to reach out to the NYPD was in response to the actions of the protesters, not the cause they are championing.
“We have made it clear that the life of campus cannot be endlessly interrupted by protesters who violate the rules and the law.”
The protest began when students barricaded the entrance of Hamilton Hall at Columbia’s campus on Tuesday and unfurled a Palestinian flag out of a window.
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Video footage showed protesters locking arms in front of the hall and carrying furniture and metal barricades to the building.
Those behind the protest said they had renamed the building “Hind’s Hall” in honour of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old girl killed in a strike on Gaza in February.
Demonstrators said they had planned to remain at the hall until the university conceded to the Columbia University Apartheid Divest’s (CUAD) three demands: divestment, financial transparency and amnesty.
“Columbia will be proud of these students in five years,” said Sweda Polat, one of the student negotiators for CUAD.
She said students did not pose a danger and called on police to back down.
Officers raided the campus on Tuesday night after university bosses wrote to New York City officials and the NYPD formally asking for assistance.
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A large group of officers dressed in riot gear entered the campus late on Tuesday evening. Officers were also seen entering the window of a university building via a police-branded ladder vehicle, nicknamed “the bear”.
Earlier, Mayor Adams urged demonstrators to leave the site. “Walk away from this situation now and continue your advocacy through other means,” he said.
Columbia University also threatened academic expulsions for students involved in the demonstration.
Protests at Columbia earlier this month kicked off demonstrations which have spread to university campuses from California to Massachusetts.
Dozens of people were arrested on Monday during protests at universities in Texas, Utah, Virginia, and New Jersey.
Police moved to clear an encampment at Yale University in Connecticut on Tuesday morning, but there were no immediate reports of arrests.
Meanwhile, the president of the University of South California issued a statement on Tuesday after a swastika was drawn on the campus.
“I condemn any antisemitic symbols or any form of hate speech against anyone,” Carol Folt said.
“Clearly it was drawn there just to incite even more anger at a time that is so painful for our community. We’re going to work to get to the bottom of this immediately, and it has just been removed.”
Earlier, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said President Joe Biden believed students occupying buildings was “absolutely the wrong approach” and “not an example of peaceful protest”.
Police in Georgia’s capital have used water cannon, tear gas and stun grenades against crowds outside the country’s parliament protesting against a bill the opposition says aims to crack down on press freedoms.
The legislation being debated by parliamentarians will require media and non-commercial organisations to register as being under foreign influence if they receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad.
Thousands of demonstrators gathered in the streets of Tbilisi on Tuesday to oppose the legislation.
Clashes erupted between security forces and protesters as they faced tear gas, water cannon and stun grenades.
Reuters eyewitnesses saw some police officers physically attack protesters, who threw eggs and bottles at them, before deploying the tactics to force crowds from outside the parliament building, the news agency reported.
After being dispersed, thousands continued to block Tbilisi’s main Rustaveli Avenue, barricading it with cafe tables and rubbish bins. Some shouted “slaves” and “Russians” at police.
Levan Khabeishvili, the leader of Georgia‘s largest opposition party, the United National Movement, posted an image on X with his face bloodied and sporting a black eye.
A party official told Reuters that Mr Khabeishvili was beaten by police after disappearing from central Tbilisi.
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Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, who is opposed to the bill and whose powers are mostly ceremonial, said in a post on X the crackdown had been “totally unwarranted, unprovoked and out of proportion” and that the protests had been peaceful.
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The bill has heightened political divisions, setting the ruling Georgian Dream party against a protest movement backed by opposition groups, communities, celebrities and the figurehead president.
It is viewed by the opposition as authoritarian and bearing a resemblance to Russian anti-independent media legislation.
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Politicians brawl in parliament
Critics have labelled the divisive bill “the Russian law”, comparing it to Moscow’s “foreign agent” legislation which has been used to crack down on dissent there.