People in Dowa on Tuesday blocked the main Dowa-Dzaleka road after a 5-year-old girl who went missing last week was found dead.
The body of the girl was found on a river bank, a few metres from the house of a woman suspected to have abducted the child.
According to police, the child, Monica Chunga, did not return home on Friday after knocking off from Chanju Nursery school in the district.
Rumours went around that the missing girl was being held by a woman residing around Dowa boma.
Angry people on Monday morning organised themselves and went to the suspect’s house where they vandalized property and killed her livestock which included pigs and goats, prompting police to fire teargas to quell the situation.
But, the situation got worse around 5:20 pm on Tuesday, after it was reported again that the girl’s body was found on a river bank, a few metres from the suspect’s house.
Hundreds flocked to the scene and later blocked the main Dowa-Dzaleka road and set the house of the suspect ablaze before police came and fired teargas to disperse the crowd and restore order.
According to Dowa police station’s Public Relations Officer, Sergeant Richard Kaponda, the body while it was in decomposed state was taken to Dowa District Hospital for post-mortem which indicated that the girl died of suffocation due to drowning.
Kaponda said the people were not satisfied with the results and the body was taken to Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe for another post-mortem and thereafter it will return for burial at the child’s home near Kaluzi village, which is situated within the Dowa boma.
koma mchitidwe ophanawu ukuchulukila chonchi bwanji vuto ndiloti zigawengazi mukazimanga lero mawa umva zatuluka boma mukusekelera zigawenga