Economics

Zambian President to Impose State of Emergency After Unrest

  • Step planned after fire razed market in Lusaka on Tuesday
  • Opposition members suspended from parliament last month
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Zambian President Edgar Lungu plans to impose a state of emergency in Africa’s second-biggest copper producer to quell unrest sparked by the arrest of an opposition leader.

Lungu will seek parliament’s backing for the proposal, after issuing a statutory instrument that proclaims “a situation exists which, if allowed to continue, may lead to a state of public emergency,” he said in a televised address in the capital, Lusaka, on Wednesday night. The announcement was made after a fire razed a market in the city on Tuesday.