However, on Wednesday fear gripped Area 23 Township in Lilongwe City when heavily armed Malawi Defense Force (MDF) personnel ambushed the suburb by surprise to restore order after Malawi Police Service (MPS) failed to contain the pressure from demonstrating civilians against President Bingu wa Mutharika’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Government.

Thousands of civilians in Malawi demonstrated against Mutharika and his government on allegations of practicing poor governance, human rights violation, disrespectful of the rule of law including failure to find long lasting solutions for the recurring fuel and forex shortages rocking the country.

“During the demonstrations civilians looted some shops and banks in the township and policemen were overpowered by civilians forcing them to run away,” Anna Chikwewu a resident of the township told Africa news in an interview adding, “As I am talking to you the soldiers are still patrolling the streets in our township.”

During a visit in the township there was indeed the presence of armed soldiers on the ground and others in Indian Model Tata trucks guarding the shops and banks that had been looted by the civilians.

“We are here simply to protect civilians and guard property and nothing else,” said one of the soldiers.

But the armed military personnels’ presence in the township as cleaning up is taking place after the looting of business premises has forced some civilians hiding in their homes to the extent that most streets are deserted and halted normal business at Area 23 Trading Centre including the market.

The civilians looted after Mutharika gave them a green light to express their right.

The Area 23 residents were just part of the protesters in Lilongwe, Blantyre, Zomba and Mzuzu cities just but mentioning a few areas allegedly showing their displeasure against the Mutharika administration’s failure to listen to citizens’ concerns on the need to address issues of national interest.

In Zomba, the demonstrations were disrupted by police, in Blantyre despite police containing the protests, later demonstrators looted some shops.

In Lilongwe demonstrators among other things broke into shops owned by People’s Trading Centre (PTC), Chipiku Stores outlets, Kulima Gold Ltd including shops owned by Chinese nationals and property owned by pro DPP sympathizers.

The angry protesters also smashed houses belonging to policemen after the law enforcers blocked all the roads to prevent the civilians to express their right to demonstrate.

In Mzuzu angry protesters burnt a Blue DPP pick up vehicle into ashes as well as pelted stones on the ruling party’s regional office.

The protests left at least one person dead in Mzuzu and several people injured across Malawi while other unconfirmed reports indicated that at least six people including some policemen died.

The injured included some journalists from the private media and members of the civil society.

The demonstrations went on side by side with Mutharika’s public lecture at the New State House in Lilongwe where he had called citizens, members of the civil society, clergy and the opposition to attend to identify possible solutions for the social, economic and political problems affecting Malawi.

Meanwhile, during his lecture which was at some point marred by an electricity blackout, the President admitted despite achieving some outstanding developments the country was experiencing social, economic and political problems.

But he was quick to say that he will not allow Malawi lose its sovereignty for the sake of soliciting aid from the West and blamed the on-going Malawi’s social-economic problems on International Monetary Fund (IMF) imposed policies on the poor southern African landlocked nation.

Mutharika said the West is playing economic hypocrisy because they were bailing out rich developed countries stuck in economic crisis while poor developing countries like Malawi are denied by imposing some unfair conditions on them.

He however, said: “There is no single solution to these problems and they cannot be resolved by an individual but rather through collective efforts from all stakeholders.”

Mutharika further vowed that Malawi will never allow western norms such as promotion of gay and lesbian rights to engulf Malawi.

He also said by shunning his public lecture at the New State House in Lilongwe members of the civil society, the clergy and the opposition missed the opportunity to offer alternative solutions for the concerned problems.

But Human Rights Consultative Committee (HRCC) Chairperson also Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) Executive Director Undule Mwakasungula said attending the public lecture would never make any difference in the lives of Malawians as Mutharika has failed to hold fruitful negotiations with stakeholders to identify solutions for Malawi’s problems.

“We have on several occasions attended meetings with the State President but each time only talking has taken place and no action,” said Mwakasungula whose committee represents over 70 Malawian Non-Governmental-Organizations (NGOs) in Malawi.