Category Archives: Caprivi Region

Zambian and Namibian police investigate ritual killings

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One of the most remote places on earth, Katima Mulilo, capital of Namibia‘s Zambezi Region, is in the news. Katima Mulilo has a population of about 50,000 people.

A combined police force from Namibia and Zambia is investigating killings in the Zambezi Region for the alleged harvesting of body organs and other body parts. Reportedly, most victims are children and vulnerable people.

The Zambezi Region, one of Namibia’s fourteen regions, is located in the north-eastern part of the country along the Zambezi River. Until 2013 it was known as the Caprivi Region, named after the Caprivi Strip, a narrow strip of land, protruding into three neighboring countries, Botswana to the south and Angola and Zambia to the north.
(FVDK)

Zambian and Namibian police investigate ritual killings

Published: February 18, 2025
By: Namibia Press Agency

The Zambian police have launched an urgent joint investigation with the Namibian Police into killings in the Zambezi region for the alleged harvesting of body parts and organs.

The victims are said to be mostly children and vulnerable people.

The body parts are believed to be sold or used in traditional rituals.

The investigation was prompted by a viral social media video shared on Monday, showing a handcuffed man being interrogated in Silozi by suspected Zambian police officers.

In the footage, a suspect confesses to collaborating with a resident of the Zambezi region to kidnap a child, murder them, and dismember their body.

The suspect also names a village in the Zambezi region and associates involved in the trade.

He further alleges that a child’s body was burned after their organs were removed and that he was paid N$5 000 for his role in the crime.

Katima Mulilo Police Station commander chief inspector Charles Mayumbelo has confirmed the joint investigation, but was hesitant to share more information.

“This is a very serious and sensitive issue that we are dealing with right now.

“We will contact you when we have all the necessary information,” he says.

Source: Zambian and Namibian police investigate ritual killings

Headless ‘muti’ murder in Kavango, Namibia (2005 article)

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The case of muti murder which is being presented below – in fact a suspected case – has been reported before, see my March 18, 2019 posting, Ritualistic murders in Namibia in 2005; 2008.  However, at that time, in 2019, the link leading to the original 2005 article had expired. Below the full text as originally published on January 2, 2005.

Unfortunately, Namibians are familiar with the crime of ritual murder, notably in the Mukwe area, as the article indicates.  (webmaster FVDK).

Headless ‘muti’ murder in Kavango

Published: January 5, 2005
By: The Namibian – Petros Kuteeue   

POLICE have not ruled out the possibility of a “muti killing” in the gruesome murder of a 79-year-old woman whose head was found floating on the Kavango River on Sunday.

The head was found at Shadikongoro village near Mukwe, about 180 kilometres east of Rundu. The culprits have not yet been arrested and the police are still searching for the rest of the body.

Law enforcement officers now fear that ritual killers, who terrorised villagers in the Mukwe area in the recent past, might be rearing their ugly heads again.

“We have had experience of such things happening in Namibia, particularly in the northern part of the country, where people were murdered and their bodies chopped into pieces,” said Warrant Officer James Matengu of the Police’s Public Relations Division.

Matengu was, however, quick to point out that the Police could not at this stage speculate on the motive of the killing, as the investigation is still underway.

Villagers at Shadikongoro have identified the deceased but, according to Matengu, her name cannot be released, as the next of kin have not yet been informed.

Contrary to a Namibia Press Agency report that the murdered woman went missing from Shadikongoro village on Christmas Day, the police stated that the woman had in fact disappeared on New Year’s Eve, on her way home after watching a religious film at a local
church.

When fellow parishioners went to her home the next day to wish her well for the New Year, she was nowhere to be found.

The following day her head was discovered floating on the river.

Last year, several muti-related attacks were reported in the Mukwe constituency, including the discovery of body parts belonging to an elderly woman, which were found in a plastic bag hanging from a tree at Bagani.

Also in 2004, a 42-year-old Zambian national was lucky to escape with his life at Katima Mulilo in the Caprivi Region when his private parts were severely mutilated by three men who allegedly tried to harvest his genitals for ritual purposes.

Source: Headless ‘muti’ murder in Kavango