Southern African states send delegation to troubled Eswatini

Southern African nations have sent envoys to the tiny kingdom of Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, to engage with King Mswati III about the political and civil unrest that has engulfed the country in recent weeks

JOHANNESBURG -- Southern African nations have sent envoys to the tiny kingdom of Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, to engage with King Mswati III about the political and civil unrest that has engulfed the country in recent weeks.

The 16-nation Southern African Development Community sent top officials from Eswatini's neighbor South Africa and the nearby countries of Botswana and Namibia.

Eswatini has been embroiled in pro-democracy protests by demonstrators demanding sweeping reforms including the removal of King Mswati, who has ruled the mountainous country since 1986 as an absolute monarch where all political parties are banned.

Mswati is accused by activists of ordering the country’s security forces to violently suppress the demonstrations. The pro-democracy activists accuse King Mswati of living a lavish lifestyle with more than a dozen wives while the majority of the country’s 1.1 million people are in poverty. Eswatini is one of the world's least developed countries.