The Archbishop of Bulawayo has spoken out against the severe maltreatment suffered by thousands of miners arrested in a series of police raids in recent weeks. Archbishop Pius Ncube has also claimed that not all of the 25,000 miners arrested as part of President Robert Mugabe's clampdown on the panning of gold ore were working illegally.

Archbishop Ncube told The Tablet: "I have talked with six people who have been affected. They were arrested by police, despite having a government licence, and their mining equipment was taken from them.

"They were beaten until they fainted, they were kept in a police camp without food for a week and were denied treatment for their beatings. They were forced to fill in their mining pits with their bare hands. All this was done with no warning. The families of these miners now have no food or money for school fees for their children. The Government is deliberately and openly causing suffering for its people."

Police have reportedly recovered about 3.5kg of gold, 550 tonnes of gold ore, 7868 diamonds and 92 emeralds since the launch of their campaign in November.

Thousands of people have taken to panning since the collapse of commercial agriculture precipitated by President Robert Mugabe's disastrous seizure of white farms.

In a once-prosperous country 80 per cent of Zimbabweans now live in poverty, and in December inflation hit an annual rate of 1,281 per cent.

n Desperate shortages of wheat have threatened to leave dioceses without the Host for celebration of the Eucharist, as wheat flour is the only certified product for producing Communion wafers, writes Donald Chidoori. Sr Agnes, head of the Poor Clare Sisters, a Host-producing congregation based in Harare, said they were "resolved to putting [their] trust in the Lord".