The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) has advised tobacco farmers to avoid travelling at night as they become vulnerable to robbers.
There has been a rise in reported cases of robberies targeting the farmers, with gun-toting robbers getting away with bales of tobacco.
National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi, on Wednesday, said that in one such incident, farmers were robbed of their tobacco around 3 AM. He said:
On June 6, three other complainants were travelling in a Mazda Bongo with 14 tobacco bales from Karoi at around 3 am.
At the intersection of Rotten Row and Coventry Road, they discovered that the tent covering the bales had been tampered with.
When the farmers stopped to check, they were confronted by a group of seven men, armed with iron bars.
The men offloaded seven bales and loaded them into their getaway vehicle and drove away.
Reports indicate that over the past few years, farmers have lost tobacco worth thousands of dollars after being robbed on their way to auction floors.