Malawian woman ‘gang-raped’, brutally killed:  Assailants on the run

Terror and grief have gripped Kantimbanya village in the area of Traditional Authority (T/A) Somba in Blantyre district after a 36-year-old woman Brenda Mujoza was on Tuesday gang raped and subsequently killed by her assailants.

Mujoza, police and family members have disclosed, was strungulated to death on the morning of Tuesday March 29th, 2016 on her way from a garden, and meanwhile her unidentified assailants are on the run.

”In the  early hours of 29th March, the deceased and her father went to their respective gardens situated in the same direction. At around 11am she knocked off  and passed by the house of her father where she told him that she was going home, and indeed she started off but only to be found dead at around 5pm,” Blantyre police Public Relations Officer, Elizabeth Divala explained.

Her body was discovered by passersby after it was thrown into a dry stream called Kadetsekani.

Post mortem conducted at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) on Wednesday confirmed that Mujoza was indeed raped and afterwards strangulated, and that her body also showed she sustained several fractures.

Her uncle Siphiwe Maliherah could not hide how shocked and grieved the family is with the untimely death of their relation.

“We are deeply shocked by Brenda’s death,” Maliherah told Nyasa Times.

“We knew Brenda only as a very peaceful and a caring woman who throughout her whole life made no squabbles with anyone, such that she at no point appeared at any hearing for any wrong doing; all she knew was living in harmony with everyone.”.

Maliherah added: “As a clan, while we remain broken-hearted, we have entrusted all our hope and we will give support to police so that they work diligently, expeditiously and professionally to bring to book the suspects in this matter”.

Currently the law-enforcers are hunting for the yet-to-be identified assailants, and Maliherah has promised the bereaved family to hold their peace, monitor and follow official investigations ‘vigilantly with utmost keen’.

“Meanwhile, we are appealing to the communities surrounding Kantimbanya Village and the general public to help us in this trying moment with any crumb of information that might help police to arrest suspects in this gruesome murder. The tips can be given through traditional leaders, police even us the bereaved family.”.

Late Mujoza was married and is survived by three children.

Her burial took place Thursday in her home village.