Body of unknown man found at Kazimzumbwi forest

Dar es Salaam. A body of an unidentified man was has been found dumped in the Pugu Kazimzumbwi forest in Ilala District in the city with wounds on his hands and punctured eyes.

The Police could not immediately confirm the incident but a local leader at Bangulo Street, Mr Gudluck Mohere, told The Citizen that the body of a man aged between 25 and 30 years was found in the forest on Tuesday and was collected by the Police.

“It’s true that a body was found on Tuesday morning. I got a call from my ten-cell leader telling me that a body had been found dumped in the Pugu Kazimzumbwi forest along Pugu Mnadani-Kifuru road,” he noted.

“When I went to the scene, I found a young man with wounds on his hands and eyes. Some people say he was a bodaboda operator, who was robbed of a motorcycle or otherwise killed and thrown in this forest. We informed the police who came and took the body and left with it,” he said.

When reached for comment, however, the Ilala Regional Police Commander, Debora Magiligimba, said reports of the incident had not yet reached her desk and that she would follow it up and issue a statement to the media. The body of the unknown person has been found whiel the whereabouts of Maliki Lukonge, ‘kidnaped’ by unknown people on February 1, 2023 from his home in Koraga Village in Mkuranga District is still unknown.

The Rufiji Special Zone Police Force is holding three people in connection with the incident.

Speaking to The Citizen yesterday, Lukonge’s uncle, Audax Lukonge, said while they were tracking their brother, they received information that a person’s body had been picked up in the Pugu area.

The Lukonge family was temporarily relieved to find out that the body was not of their relative but the search for their beloved one still continues.

“We have looked at the body, but we have found out that it is not that of our brother,” he said. The Bangulo Street chairman said that is not the first incident to have occurred in the area of the forest, explaining that in recent years more than six people were found dead in such circumstances in the forest.

“Since I became the chairman, this is the sixth or seventh incident to have occurred in this forest, the environment of this area is not friendly and that is why incidents like this do not end as people’s bodies are found dumped here.

The government should reduce incidents of this kind by turning the area into a recreation spot or a cemetery, the Bangulo leader said.