Malawian police have discovered a mass grave containing the remains of 25 people they believe are Ethiopian migrants.
Villagers in the Mzimba area, about 155 miles (250km) north of the capital Lilongwe, stumbled on the grave while collecting wild honey in a forest and raised the alarm with authorities.
“The grave was discovered late on Tuesday but we cordoned it off and started exhuming today. So far, we have discovered 25 bodies,” said police spokesperson, Peter Kalaya to AFP.
They suspect the remains belong to illegal migrants who were being transported to South Africa via Malawi.
Evidence gathered from the site indicated the victims were all Ethiopian men between 25 and 40 years old, who were likely buried no more than a month ago.
The decomposing bodies were exhumed and taken to a morgue for autopsy.
As of May 2021, there were 52,258 refugees and asylum seekers in Malawi, coming from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Mozambique and elsewhere.
Malawi is also a popular route for people from east Africa being smuggled to South Africa, which is the continent’s most industrialised country and draws poor migrants from elsewhere on the continent.
Kalaya said that between January and September this year, authorities intercepted 221 migrants, 186 of whom were Ethiopians.
At the end of September, Malawi’s Immigration Department repatriated 22 Ethiopian nationals who were arrested in Malawi for violation of the country’s immigration laws.
Sergeant Manguwo said this was a continuation of the repatriation exercise which the department launched in August, in a move they say will "decongest the country’s prisons."
The repatriation is being done in conjunction with the Malawi and Ethiopian governments and with financial assistance from International Organisation for Migration and has led to 193 Ethiopians returning to their country.
The news comes as World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says there is a “very narrow window now to prevent genocide” in his home region of Tigray in northern Ethiopia.
A truce between pro-government forces and rebels collapsed in August, leading to an uptick in the conflict which has so far killed thousands of people, displaced millions and left hundreds of thousands on the brink of famine.
Ethiopian forces have captured several towns in Tigray this week and many are worried soldiers will commit abuses against civilians.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged on Wednesday for targeted sanctions and an arms embargo against Ethiopia to help protect civilians as the country's brutal war in Tigray intensifies.
HRW said the stories emerging from the conflict zones were "terrifying."
