The family of missing Zimbabwean medical doctor and union leader Peter Magombeyi is struggling to come to terms with his disappearance but is still hoping he will be returned home alive, says family spokesperson and uncle to Peter Harry Magombeyi. Magombeyi's disappearance had generated a storm of protest, with doctors and other health workers demanding his safe return. Two teachers' unions have now resolved to join the protests.

Union activists and rights campaigners have accused Zimbabwe's security forces of kidnapping Peter Magombeyi, the leader of a doctors' union, who disappeared during a strike he had helped organise. Government information secretary Nick Mangwana has suggested, however, that the abductions could be the work of a "third force" out to soil the image of the Emmerson Mnangagwa government - a claim rejected by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.