ZIMBABWE’S authorities shut down the internet across the country again yesterday as unrest sparked by a rise in fuel prices and the faltering economy continues.

Internet service provider Econet, the country’s largest, said in a message to subscribers: “We are obliged to act when directed to do so and the matter is beyond our control.”

Company founder Strive Masiyiwa, who has previously funded opposition party the Movement for Democratic Change, claimed authorities had warned that failure to comply could lead to jail.

He alleged that the company had also been made to shut down internet access in the Democratic Republic of Congo following the disputed presidential elections there.

Nationwide anti-government protests are continuing in the wake of a three-day general strike over a rise in petrol prices introduced last Saturday.

Petrol is now more expensive in Zimbabwe than anywhere else in the world and poverty in the country is also being deepened by spiralling inflation and a huge drop in the value of the currency.

The United Nations called for calm and condemned the “excessive use of force” by security forces, which are reported to have been trawling poor neighbourhoods, dragging people from their homes and beating them.

Pastor Evan Mawaire, a prominent opposition activist, said it was “heartbreaking” to see President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government acting like the that of his predecessor Robert Mugabe, who was forced to step down in disgrace in November 2017.

He was speaking on his way to court, where he faces 20 years in prison for his role in the protests.

UN human rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said: “We are deeply troubled by the socio-economic crisis that is unfolding in Zimbabwe and the repression of large-scale protests in the country.

“We call on the government to find ways of engaging with the population about their legitimate grievances and to stop the crackdown against protesters.”