More than 2000 arrested in food riots in Harare

The authorities in Zimbabwe say more than two-thousand people have been arrested in connection with food riots earlier this week in the capital, Harare, that left at least five dead.

The city is now reported to be calm but soldiers are still patrolling some areas where rioting was most severe.

The disturbances were provoked by a twenty-one per cent rise in the price of the staple maize meal.

The rise has been cancelled by the government which said it was negotiating ways to bring down the price of food with manufacturers.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service