Malawi insecurity: Armed gang attack Poly female hostel
Female students at the Polytechnic, a constituent college of the University of Malawi, are living in fear after robbers armed with panga knives attacked their hostel on Wednesday night.
About four robbers, who are still at large, broke into the girls hostels at Chichiri in Blantyre and took away assorted items including cash.
Police said the armed gang force-opened six rooms of the students and stole a laptop, six mobile phones and K10 000 cash, among other gadgets.
“We have launched an investigation into the matter. After breaking in, the robbers just threatened the students without harming any of them,” Southern Region Police Spokesperson Nicholas Gondwa said.
He however urged the traumatized students to remain calm while assuring them that police are appropriate measures to ensure that they are protected.
Similar
Meanwhile, the police spokesperson said they suspect that after terrorizing the students, the same robbers rushed to Namiwawa residential area where they also broke into the house of a Mr Abubaker and also stole two laptops and six cellphones.
“There is a similarity in the two incidents and we believe the same robbers committed the crime in the two areas,” he said.
The incident comes just a week after another female student with the privately owned Blantyre International University (BIU) residing at Namiwawa Flats, near Namiwawa Primary School, was kidnapped and gang raped by robbers.
At the house of the 20-year-old Business Administration student, the robbers went away with assorted household items which included Telefunken radio, Dell Laptop computer, Heavy duty drier, assorted clothes and other small items worth about K900, 000.
Malawi’s cities and major towns have been experiencing increased robbery cases since President Joyce Banda publicly ordered the police not to shoot and kill suspects because they are also human beings.
However, some senior members of the ruling People’s Party (PP) have blamed the former ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of providing guns and other weapons to its operatives to destabilize the country.
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :