20 Somali migrants found dead in TZ

DAR ES SALAAM, Jan 5 – Twenty Somali migrants were found dead last week in eastern Tanzania, likely thrown out of the smuggler’s truck and into the bush after asphyxiating, police sources said Wednesday.

“We are still conducting investigations. We are going to give details later but the deceased included three women,” Morogoro regional police commander Adolphina Chialo said.

The migrants were thought to be on their way to Zambia or South Africa and were found in various locations along the road between December 26 and January 1, the police said.

“Traffickers increasingly use Tanzania as transit country,” interior ministry spokesman Isaac Nantanga said.

Thousands of Somalis flee their famine-stricken and conflict-wracked country every month, some to refugee camps in neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia and others to seek work in other countries with the help of smugglers.

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