Soldiers have reportedly shot dead dozens of protesters demonstrating against Africa's last all-powerful king.
Troops in the southern African kingdom of eSwatini, formerly known as Swaziland, fired gunshots and tear gas on demonstrators last week.
The Communist Party of Swaziland claims that regime forces have been throwing the bodies of shot activists into burning buildings, The Times reports.
On Sunday, Pope Francis called for reconciliation in country after the declaration of a dusk-till-dawn curfew and an internet blackout.
Acting Prime Minister Themba Masuku denied media reports that King Mswati III had fled the violence to neighbouring South Africa.
Mr Masuku said: "His Majesty...is in the country and continues to advance the Kingdom's goals. We appeal for calm, restraint and peace."
Anger against Mswati has been building for years and campaigners say the king has consistently evaded calls for meaningful reforms.
They also accuse him of using public coffers as a piggy bank, funding a lavish lifestyle off the backs of his 1.5 million subjects, most of them subsistence farmers.
Security forces set up road blocks to prevent access by some vehicles to the capital, Mbabane, last week.
Some banks said they had shut until the unrest subsides.
Vusi Madalane, a shop assistant in the capital Mbabane, said: "I can hear gunshots and smell teargas. I do not know how I will get home, there is nothing in the bus rank, there is a strong presence of riot police and the army."
Mr Masuku said a curfew had been imposed from 6 pm until 5 am, and that schools had been ordered closed. This was to curb "violence in several parts of the country perpetuated by an unruly crowd," he said.
King Mswati III, 53, denies being an autocrat and is unapologetic about the lifestyle enjoyed by him and his 15 wives, who between them occupy several state-funded palaces.
A spate of crackdowns, such as the arrest of opposition leaders and activists in 2019, has done little to discourage anti-monarchy sentiment in the former British protectorate.
Mswati has ruled the nation since he was crowned king on April 25, 1986.
