Mob justice leads to deaths in Amalika Forest

Amalika Forest in Traditional Authority (T/A) Bvumbwe Thyolo District has earned itself a reputation of a haunted forest after 20 bodies of locals  and three forest guards were found there in 2023.

But community leaders we talked to say more people have died in the area as the killings in the forest started in 2020.  

Group village head Mkaombe said in an interview that out of the 23 dead, six were from his village.

“Last year alone we lost 23 people in this area. As chiefs, we met and decided to storm Bvumbwe Police Station, asking them to help us, but nothing has happened,” he said.

South West Region Police public relations officer Joseph Sauka said that some people from around Amalika Forest organised themselves in December 2023 and attacked security guards, killing three of them.

“Following the mob justice, police were deployed to the forest and arrested six villagers,” said Sauka.

Mkaombe corroborated this, saying frustrated with police  inaction; some villagers took the law into their own hands and attacked the forest guards “because they suspected them of being behind the killings in the name of protecting the forest from deforestation”.

“Why aren’t the police helping us and only showed up when villagers attacked the guards?” he wondered.

He said the 23 victims were from villages under T/A Bvumbwe including Kankhomba, Thunga, Beni, Sing’anga, Malika, Sakoma, Gowa and Mkaombe.

But Sauka said the Amalika issue is complex because there are two issues—murder and theft—under investigation.

He said he is not sure of the number of murder cases, but what he knows is that police are investigating some cases that happened around Amalika Forest.

Sauka said six villagers and four guards were arrested and are on remand.

Asked to specify cases police are investigating, he said it is difficult to confirm because the files that were registered at Bvumbwe Police Station in 2022 were burnt when irate villagers set the office ablaze.

He said police investigations also established that bodies of some people were murdered elsewhere and just dumped in in the forest.

Our visit to the area

On January 10 this year, we met Rose Jomo at Malika Village. She was having lunch with her six children.

Jomo lost her husband on October 17 2022. According to her, no one  to date has been arrested or summoned for questioning by police. However, police state otherwise.

Feeling that she has been denied justice, Jomo said she resorts to keeping quiet about the matter.

When we arrived, the village head called her to meet us, but when she heard that we wanted  to ask her about her husband’s death, she returned to  her house, saying she was not ready to talk to this journalist.

We waited for about 20 minutes, but she did not come.

“Mtima wanga ukuwawa, sindingamakhale pansi kulankhula zimenezo. [It is painful for me to be talking about the death of my husband],” she told the village head from inside the house.

After some time, this journalist followed her into the house where a month-old baby was crying uncontrollably.

“Anyway, since you seem to be interested in the matter; I am bitter as it is difficult to raise six children alone,” she said.

Jomo said her husband, Lucius Mphameya, on the fateful day left home around 5am for his garden which borders Amalika Forest.

“He was accompanied by a friend,” she said. “My husband was also a builder and he wanted to finish work early so that by 9am he could go somewhere to do piecework.”

Jomo said she was surprised to see the friend coming back in tears.

“We asked him what had happened and he said my husband had been shot.

“He said when they arrived at the garden, he heard gunshots only to see that my husband was shot,” she claimed.

Jomo alleged that they went to the forest together with some villagers and confronted forest guards.

“They told us that my husband was taken to Thyolo District Hospital. When we arrived at the hospital, I could not see him. Later, one hospital official told me that my husband’s body was lying in the mortuary… I was upset and I left the hospital,” said Jomo.

She said it was the police who brought the body for burial.

“Since that time, nothing has been said. I am alone taking care of my four daughters and two boys,” she said.

In the same village, we met Barnet Moya, 42, who alleged was shot on June 16 last year while guarding his tomato garden near Amalika Forest.

On that day, Moya was with his 20-year-old son, Kennedy.

“We make money through the tomato business. Most times we lose our tomatoes to thieves. So, we decided to spend a night in the garden,” he said.

Moya said he saw two men at around 8pm walking towards his garden.

“I had a torch and I turned the light on them. I shouted: ‘Do you want to steal tomatoes?’ The next thing I heard was a gunshot. They shot me in the left foot. My son took me home and I was later taken to Thyolo District Hospital where I was referred to Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital,” he said.

He claimed he was operated on his foot to remove a bullet. A hospital report we saw showed that Moya was admitted to the hospital following an open fracture of the third metatarsal [bones of the feet] “secondary to gunshot”.

He is regularly in pain following the injury.

“It is difficult for me to walk long distances, so I stopped farming in that area. I tried to access justice, but nothing happened. I gave up,” said Moya, who is also a Class Vision Church pastor in Malika Village.

The 370-hectare forest was established in 1959 and is owned by Mulli Brothers Limited.

We tried to talk to  Mulli Brothers executive chairman Leston Mulli, but he did not respond to our phone calls.