Malawi police found more bodies near a mass grave of 25 Ethiopians

CNN
–

Four more bodies of illegal immigrants from Ethiopia have been found near the site of a mass grave in northern Malawi containing the remains of 25 Ethiopian nationals, according to police in the South African country.

Malawi police spokesman Peter Kalaya said the Ethiopians were suspected of being victims of human smuggling. The four bodies were found a day after the bodies of 25 Ethiopian migrants were exhumed from a mass grave in the Mzimba district of northern Malawi. Police found that the 25 victims were men between the ages of 25 and 40.

In Thursday’s update, Kalaya said: “The (newly discovered) bodies… were found in a decomposing state on the ground about one kilometer from a mass grave where 25 more bodies were exhumed on Wednesday within the Mtangatanga Forest Reserve.”

He added that an autopsy is being conducted on the victims to determine the cause of death.

Klaya told CNN on Friday that some arrests had been made.

“72 Ethiopians have been arrested for ‘illegal entry’ violating Malawi immigration laws (and) ten Malawians have been arrested because we suspect they were helping these illegal immigrants through Malawi,” the police spokesperson said.

Malawi is becoming an increasingly common route for gangs smuggling illegal migrants, especially from the Horn of Africa, through the southern African country, with the aim of reaching South Africa, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

“We intercept illegal immigrants now and then in the country,” Kalaya told CNN about the Malawian government’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, noting that many of those intercepted were Ethiopians and Somalis.

He explained that more than 200 illegal immigrants were intercepted in the past eight months, adding that 186 of them are Ethiopians.

Last year, more than 100 Ethiopians were repatriated “after being stranded at the Malawi border,” the country’s immigration department said at the time.

In 2012, nearly 50 migrants from Ethiopia died when their boat capsized while crossing Lake Malawi.

Originally published at San Jose News Bulletin