Twenty-seven bodies dumped along road in Zambia

Lusaka  —  Zambian police on Sunday found the bodies of 27 men, believed to be migrants from Ethiopia, dumped in a farming area on the outskirts of the capital, authorities said.

They probably suffocated to death while in transit, police spokesperson Danny Mwale told the BBC. 

A sole survivor was found alive in the early hours of Sunday morning and taken to a Lusaka hospital for treatment, while the dead were transported to the mortuary for identification and post mortems to determine the exact cause of death, police said.

Zambia is a transit point for migrants hoping to reach SA.

Preliminary police investigations showed the victims were all males aged between 20 and 38 and had been left along a road by unknown people.

“Police and other security wings have since instituted investigations into the matter,” Mwale, police spokesperson, said in a statement after police were alerted to the gruesome scene by members of the public.

In Malawi, authorities discovered 25 bodies of Ethiopian migrants in a mass grave in October, reports said.

Reuters