The Eswatini government insists police did not use excessive force to quell protests.

Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku says officers were merely protecting people.

The country is gripped by deadly pro-democracy protests.

Masuku’s comments came after he met with SADC envoys deployed to ease tensions.

Africa’s last absolute monarchy has been rocked by demonstrations, even as regional mediators tried to address the crisis.

They also come in the wake of the UN Secretary-General expressing concern over the use of force.

“Every country has ways of dealing with situations and in dealing with them, there will be situations that will spoil the game. So what I’m saying is when the situation confronted police, they used minimum force. Teargas issues, [the] national commissioner is looking into it, nobody said they must use teargas,” Masuku said.

“There is no instruction to do that, if that happened it’s something that spoilt the game, in trying to protect other people. Police will always be there to protect property and people.”