Malawi protesters killed during anti-regime riots

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Source: The Guardian

At least 18 people have been killed, officials say, in two days of public unrest in Malawi, an unlikely stage for one of the biggest anti-government protests in sub-Saharan Africa this year.

The protests, sparked by worsening fuel shortages, rising prices and high unemployment in the southern African country, have seen calls for president Bingu wa Mutharika to step down.

Malawi's health ministry spokesman Henry Chimbali confirmed 10 deaths in the northern cities of Karonga and Mzuzu, where protesters ransacked the offices of Mutharika's Democratic Progressive party (DPP) on Wednesday.

The others died in the capital, Lilongwe, and the southern commercial hub of Blantyre after police and troops fired teargas to disperse crowds demanding that Mutharika quit.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/21/malawi-protesters-killed-anti-regime-riots