The Zimbabwe Christian Alliance (ZCA) has held emergency meetings to coordinate its response to the growing number of people fleeing to major cities to escape violence perpetrated on those who voted for the opposition.
Member churches of the ZCA, a Christian Aid partner, have already received people in Harare and Bulawayo; churches in other major cities have also opened their doors.
‘We publicly condemn this suffering and killing of innocent people’
‘We need to provide these people with shelter, food and blankets,’ says Rev Jonah Gokova of the ZCA.
‘From a faith perspective these actions are really demonic. They are undermining the dignity of people created in the image of God.’
Rev Gokova says pastors are also being targeted; two pastors arrived in Harare after being warned by their parishioners to flee.
Armed gangs
The victims of this violence are caught up in Operation Makavhoterapapi, which is Shona for ‘Where did you put your cross?’
Gangs of armed ZANU PF supporters are moving through the countryside to identify villages which support the opposition party.
‘We are concerned about this situation which now resembles a state of war,’ says Rev Gokova. ‘As Christians we publicly condemn this suffering and killing of innocent people.
‘The courage of these people is amazing. One man we are trying to help refused to take up a safe house we had provided him with, saying he had to get back to his family.
‘He was not prepared to leave his family facing the same threats he had escaped. He is determined to get his family out.’
The ZCA is also speaking to churches in neighbouring South Africa, Zambia and Botswana, which have offered support.
Widespread famine
A statement released earlier this week by church leaders in Zimbabwe warned the country faces ‘genocide’ unless the international community intervenes.
It also said there was "widespread famine" in Zimbabwe's countryside, that basic goods were unavailable or too expensive and that there were no medicines to treat people injured in the post-election violence.
On the brink
Rev Gokova says: ‘While we are trying to find ways to comfort these people, we appeal to Christians everywhere to condemn this situation. We urge people to pray for peace in Zimbabwe.’
The chancellor of the Anglican Harare Diocese has called upon all Christians to focus their prayers on Sunday, 27 April on the critical situation in Zimbabwe, a nation in dire distress and teetering on the brink of human disaster.
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