Forestry officer murdered,police hunt for assailants

Police in Mzimba District are looking for unidentified assailants who killed Louis Munyenyembe, 37, who was a senior forestry assistant at Mzimba District Forestry Office.

In an interview yesterday, Mzimba Police Station spokesperson Peter Botha said the murder happened at St. Francis area at Mzimba Boma on Monday.

He said preliminary investigations show that Munyenyembe went to St. Francis area to enforce the law on charcoal traffickers when he met his fate.

“It is believed that the deceased went there to corner charcoal traffickers who in the process allegedly assaulted him. We are yet to find out as to why he was conducting such dangerous operations alone,” he said.

Botha said Munyenyembe was  reportedly dumped while unconscious at Kaphuta Bridge along the Kaphuta-Chimkusa-path at Mzimba Boma.

“The matter was reported to Mzimba Police Station and Munyenyembe was rushed to Mzimba District Hospital where he died on arrival. Postmortem showed that he died due to loss of blood,” he said.

Mzimba district forestry officer Masozi Mhoni described Munyenyembe’s death  as a big blow to the department, saying he was young and hard working.

“We are shocked with Munyenyembe’s death because he was one of our hard-working young people and we are hoping our friends from Police will conclude their investigations fast,” she said.

Munyenyembe came from Mahowe Village, Traditional Authority Nthalire in Chitipa District. n