Zimbabwe's farmers leaders warned today that ruling party militants had begun a new phase of political violence against white landowners.
The Commercial Farmers Union urged its members to remain vigilant, especially in the western Matabeleland province after a 68-year-old woman farmer was killed in a hail of bullets from assault rifles and a prominent ranching family was threatened.
The farmers' union said the militants were "very active and aggressive" in that district. Elsewhere across the country there was a recent upsurge in threats and intimidation against farmers and their workers, the union reported.
Gloria Olds, a grandmother, was ambushed at her homestead gate early on Sunday by gunmen armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles.
Police said the motive appeared to have been robbery.
But the union statement said the attackers entered her homestead and "walked past cash on the table and a weapon by the bedside" after shooting dead the three farm dogs.
Mrs Olds was the eighth member of Zimbabwe's white farming community to be killed since ruling party militants and veterans of the country's independence war began violently seizing white-owned farms last year with the backing of President Robert Mugabe and his government.
Mrs Olds' son Martin, 42, was shot and killed by militants on his nearby property last year. He was an opposition activist.
AP