Rustenburg - Five trucks transporting cement were looted along the Lilongwe-Mchinji road in Malawi this week, after being stopped by a mob of residents, the Nyasa Times reported.
The paper quoted national police spokesperson James Kadadzera as saying the incident was a calculated move by few criminal-minded individuals and others with partisan political interests.
He said such people had helped fuel violent demonstrations to make Malawi lawless.
In a Human Rights Day message President Peter Mutharika said some youth were being radicalised to vandalise their own education infrastructure and committing serious crimes over what he called petty issues.
He said while the government was making every effort to develop the lives of young people, political and civil society leaders were using them to perpetrate violence.
"These people are exploiting the poverty and vulnerability of the youth to engage in violence and politically engineered political activities," said Mutharika.
"Some organisations are hiding behind defending human rights when they are actually engaging in violence, criminal activities and blatantly violating everybody’s human rights. These people and organisations are in fact teaching the youth of this country to be violent society."