Bodies of 19 Ethiopians found

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Congolese border guards found the bodies of 19 Ethiopian migrants who had died of asphyxia in a lorry carrying nearly 100 stowaways, after being alerted by a “nauseous” smell, offi cials said Saturday.

Seventy-six other Ethiopians were found still alive when the Zambianregistered truck was stopped Thursday in the southeast of Congo, close to the border with Zambia. “We stopped this vehicle … because of the nauseous smell which was coming from the trailer,” said Jean-Pierre Lubosha, the local head of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) border guard (DMG). DRC’s President is Joseph Kabila. All the survivors stated that they had fl ed their country to head for southern Africa, passing through Kenya, in search of better lives, according to Lubosha.

The lorry’s crew had claimed to be transporting small fi sh. “The bodies were handed over to the Zambian authorities on Thursday. We interviewed the survivors who all claimed to be Ethiopian nationals,” said Lubosha. The survivors were handed over to Zambian offi cials on Friday. “We congratulate the Congolese authorities for their vigilance, allowing them to discover this scandalous human traffi cking, implicating three Zambian members of the (lorry) crew,” said Zambian vice consul David Nyangulu. (AFP)

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