eswatini

Regional powerhouse South Africa have urged Eswatini’s security forces to practise ‘total restraint’ and Britain expressed concern following reports of a deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

Dissent has long been stifled in Africa’s last absolute monarchy, a small landlocked state previously known as Swaziland.

But demonstrations escalated radically this week as protesters defied a dusk-to-dawn curfew to take to the streets, looting and torching buildings linked to King Mswati III — and demanding immediate political reform.

The government in the southern African kingdom of 1.3 million people has since deployed the military to quell the protests, which it blames on …