Zambia: One survivor as police find the bodies of 27 suspected Ethiopian nationals

CNN
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The Zambia Police Service said it is investigating the killings of 27 men who are all believed to be dead ethiopian nationals, Their bodies were found on Sunday “dumped” on the side of the road near the capital, Lusaka.

Police spokesman Danny Mwale said statement A total of 28 abandoned victims were found along Shimenoka Road in Nguerre district of Lusaka.

Mawali said that only one man — between the ages of 20 and 38 — survived.

“Of the 28 people, one was found panting for life,” the police statement said, adding that 27 bodies had been taken to the Lusaka mortuary “awaiting official identification and an autopsy.”

Police said the only survivor was taken to hospital for treatment.

Increasingly, Ethiopians are taking desperate measures to escape Africa’s second most populous country, which has been in the grip of Civil war for the past Two years.

Some Ethiopian nationals are lured with promises of job opportunities in South Africa, only to end up in squalid conditions, according to The Guardian. The Lusaka Times quoted immigration officials.

The latest discovery comes less than two months after police in neighboring Malawi I found a mass grave which contained the remains of 25 Ethiopians in the Mzimba region in northern Malawi.

Malawi police said at the time that four more bodies of Ethiopian nationals were found “in a state of decomposition” the following day, near the mass grave site in Mzimba.

Just like Malawi, which is increasingly becoming A popular route for smuggling gangsZambia has described both “Country of Transit and Destination” For illegal immigrants from the Horn of Africa who pass through the southern African country with the intention of reaching South Africa.

In July, immigration officials in Zambia intercepted more than 50 Ethiopians believed to have been smuggled into the country on their way to South Africa.