JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A mass shooting in South Africa this week was the latest in a trend of killings in some of the country's poorest areas that experts say is a symptom of organized crime gangs taking advantage of the failures and sometimes absence of police.
The shooting carried out by multiple suspects in an informal settlement of shacks in Johannesburg left 12 people dead and at least 15 wounded, according to authorities.
There have not been any arrests.
South Africa's president deployed the army to the streets in several hotspots earlier this year in an attempt to combat organized crime — an unusual move seen by critics as an admission that police in Africa's most developed country were losing the battle in those areas.
Alongside that, South Africa's police force has been embroiled in allegations of corruption and collusion with criminal syndicates. That has resulted in more than a dozen senior officers being arrested and top officials, including the police minister and the national police commissioner, being suspended.
The shooting carried out by multiple suspects in an informal settlement of shacks in Johannesburg left 12 people dead and at least 15 wounded, according to authorities.
There have not been any arrests.
South Africa's president deployed the army to the streets in several hotspots earlier this year in an attempt to combat organized crime — an unusual move seen by critics as an admission that police in Africa's most developed country were losing the battle in those areas.
Alongside that, South Africa's police force has been embroiled in allegations of corruption and collusion with criminal syndicates. That has resulted in more than a dozen senior officers being arrested and top officials, including the police minister and the national police commissioner, being suspended.
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