The Police in Malawi, on Thursday October 20, 2022, unearthed four more bodies following the grim discovery of a mass grave containing the remains of 25 men suspected to be Ethiopian migrants.
The latest findings were made at four separate locations about two kilometres from the mass grave, bringing the total of bodies discovered so far to 29.
Investigators found the four bodies while combing the area, police spokesman Peter Kalaya told AFP.
Villagers in the northern area of Mzimba, about 250km north of the capital Lilongwe, stumbled on the mass grave while collecting wild honey in a forest earlier this week.
Police said evidence gathered from the site on Wednesday indicated the 25 victims were Ethiopian males aged between 25 and 40 years.
The dead are suspected to be migrants heading for South Africa – the continent’s most industrialised economy and a magnet for poor workers from elsewhere on the continent.
Kalaya said that between January and September this year, authorities had intercepted 221 illegal immigrants, 186 of whom were Ethiopians.
Homeland Security Minister Jean Sendeza visited Mzimba on Thursday.
“All I can say is that I am shocked and sad,” she told AFP in response to a question.
“But I will only be able to make a statement once the pathologist is done with his work so that we get to know how these people died.”