No sanctuary

Zimbabwe | Mugabe tsunami closes in on churches that aid refugees | Priya Abraham

By the time the squatters arrived at Bulawayo's churches at June's end, they had nowhere else to go. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was herding them off their makeshift shanty towns, the only homes they had. But little did the roughly 1,200 locals know the church walls would provide little sanctuary.

Operation Murambatsvina—literally "Drive Out the Trash"—has been in full swing across Zimbabwe's cities since May 19. The ostensible justification is to clear away "illegal" trading and settlements. The operation gained the attention of the UN, which sent special envoy Anna Tibaijuka to investigate the demolitions.

Her report, issued July 22, said the government-sponsored raids have left 700,000 Zimbabweans homeless, jobless, or both—a cleanup known locally as the "Mugabe Tsunami." "It will take several years before the people and society as a whole can recover," the report said.