At least 27 suspected migrants from Ethiopia have been found lifeless, suffocated and possibly thrown from a truck, on the outskirts of Zambia’s capital, Lusaka.
Zambian police spokesman Danny Mwale told the BBC’s African branch on Sunday that security forces found only one survivor «not breathing» who was rushed to a local hospital.
The bodies were found in the district of Ngwerere at around 6:00 a.m. local time.
«Our preliminary investigations indicate that a total number of 28 persons, all males aged between 20 and 38 years, were dumped at Meanwood Nkhosi along Chiminuka road by unknown persons,» Lusaka Police added in a statement.
Based on the documents they were carrying, it is believed that the migrants were coming from Ethiopia and were passing through Zambian territory, as a stopover on a very common journey for people mostly from the Horn of Africa to South Africa.
The bodies have been transferred to the morgue of the University of Zambia Teaching Hospital.
In October, in neighboring Malawi, authorities discovered 25 bodies of Ethiopian immigrants in a mass grave. The Malawian Police made it known at the time that they had evidence to link the stepson of the former president, Peter Mutharika, to this crime.
Zambia, with its 18 million inhabitants, has been fighting illegal human trafficking for years. According to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, Zambia has taken in more than 105,000 refugees from neighboring countries such as Congo, Burundi, Angola and Rwanda.
In regional terms, the country is considered fairly stable politically. In 2021, Zambia experienced a peaceful transition of power, but faces many challenges, such as widespread poverty, malnutrition and the consequences of climate change. At the end of 2020, Zambia had to declare insolvency to its international creditors.
