Operation Murambatsvina (Move the Rubbish), also officially known as Operation Restore Order, was a large-scale Zimbabwean government campaign to forcibly clear slum areas across the country. The campaign started in 2005 and, according to United Nations estimates, affected at least 700,000 people directly through loss of their homes or livelihood and thus could have indirectly affected around 2.4 million people.[1] Robert Mugabe and other government officials characterised the operation as a crackdown against illegal housing and commercial activities, and as an effort to reduce the risk of the spread of infectious disease in these areas.
However, the campaign was met with harsh condemnation from Zimbabwean opposition parties, church groups, non-governmental organisations, and the wider international community. The United Nations described the campaign as an effort to drive out and make homeless large sections of the urban and rural poor, who make up much of the internal opposition to the Mugabe administration. Amnesty International and the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions called on the UN and the African Union to intervene. UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw urged African nations to stop ignoring what was happening in Zimbabwe, while US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged the Africa Union to speak out over the "tragic" events.[2]