AT LEAST 15 people were shot dead in Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, today as the government continued its brutal crackdown on the growing movement for democracy.

Security services have been accused of cutting the internet and using the blackout to raid homes and kill people in the hope that their actions will not be detected.

Leading figures from the Democracy Now movement are the main targets of the regime of King Msawti III, the last absolutist monarch in Africa.