Students at Zambia’s largest university have staged a second day of violent demonstrations in the capital, Lusaka. They are protesting the death of a student who was hit and killed by a car outside the University of Zambia campus. Police say the students torched several vehicles and caused a massive traffic jam in the capital. This was the second time in two weeks a student had been killed by a car near the campus.
Lusaka-based reporter Kellys Kaunda told English to Africa reporter Ashenafi Abedje the situation at the university remains “calm but tense, with armed para-military officers all over the university.” He says students are renewing their previous demands that “authorities erect a foot bridge flying over the Great East Road to join the university’s main campus with the residential area on the other side.” Kaunda says in the past there have been several automobile accidents in the area.
To break the current impasse, reporter Kaunda says the students are asking the government “to assure them of security in terms of them crossing into class and out of class.” But he says to date, the government has failed to provide the students with such assurance.