Police recover body of one of two drowned boys in Kavango East

The police have recovered the body of one of two boys that drowned in a river at Mayara village in the Kavango East region’s Mukwe constituency last week.

The children were accompanying their sister Cecilia Mangundu to the river to wash clothes when they drowned.

Village headman Moyo Nyambi says the boys’ parents were working in their garden a few metres from the river at the time of the incident.

When their sister returned from hanging up clothes, the boys were nowhere to be seen.

“Their clothes were found at the shore where they were playing, and this is the first time this kind of incident happened at Mayara,” Nyambi says.

Kavango East regional crime investigations coordinator Bonifasius Kanyetu has confirmed the incident, saying the search for the bodies commenced shortly after the incident was reported to the police on Saturday last weekend.

“After a 7-day full search, the mission was called off today (Saturday) at 15h00,” says Kanyetu of the boy who is still missing.
He says the body of Valentinus Mangundu (7) was retrieved and taken to Andara mortuary for a post-mortem, and the results will be out later today.

The body of Gotfred Kushonya (4) is still missing, and the police search has ended.

Kanyetu says the police urges communities along the Kavango River to report it if they find or see something suspicious to the nearest police station or call Kanyetu at 081 293 0991. “The day of the incident, the father, John Kushonya Kambowo, and mother, Petronela Muyomba, were working in the garden watering vegetables along the river while their sister was washing clothes,” says Petrina Mangundu, a relative of the boys.

The family started searching immediately when they noticed the kids were nowhere to be seen, before reporting the matter to the police.

“Our little one was not killed by crocodiles, neither drowned. We suspect someone did it, because when the body of Valentinus was retrieved on Tuesday, it was not showing any symptoms of a person who died in the river,” Mangundu says.

Mangundu says the recovered body has been mutilated, with parts cut off.

She says justice must be served for the two children.

“We want the traditional leaders to call a community meeting if anyone did it for ritual, be it from the village or somewhere else to help us find the suspect and the remaining body,” she says.

“We are waiting for the police to give us the postmortem results so that we can start with the preparation [for the burial],” says Mangundu.