Lesotho imposed a nighttime curfew after an investigative journalist was gunned down on Sunday.
(Bloomberg) — Lesotho imposed a nighttime curfew after an investigative journalist was gunned down on Sunday.
The countrywide rule will restrict movement between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. from Tuesday, Lebona Lephema, the minister of police, said in a statement on state broadcasters. It was announced less than 24 hours after a local radio presenter and journalist, Ralikonelo “Leqhashasha” Joki, was gunned down by unknown assailants near his workplace on the capital, Maseru.
The mountainous landlocked country of about 2.3 million people has the world’s third-highest homicide rate, with more than 43 murders per 100,000 people, according to World Population Review.
Hospitals, the media and the security sector will be exempted from the curfew.
Opposition leader Machesetsa Mofomobe criticized the move by the government, saying it will further hurt the ailing economy and cost jobs, which have still not recovered from Covid-19 restrictions, as nightclubs, hotels, garages, cabs, and street vendors who operate at night won’t be able to do business.
“People are not killed from 10 to 4, what is needed is a crime prevention strategy and money to implement that strategy,” the Basotho National Party leader said in a post on Facebook.
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