Zambia: A 22-year-old woman was left unconscious following a gang rape by more than five unknown persons in Livingstone’s Samson Compound around 02:00 hours on 25th December 2023.
This horrific and malicious incident was reported to Linda Police by the victim’s mother, who had accompanied her daughter to the Station.
Southern Province Commissioner of Police, Auxensio Daka, said that on 24th December, the victim, with her friend, left Libuyu Compound for Samson Village for Christmas Eve celebrations.
Daka notes that when they reached Samson Village, they went to Ayoba Bar and stayed there until midnight when the two boys requested that the victims she knows, Micheal and Mike, chat with them just beside the Bar.
He says that, amid the chat, some other male person came unsuspectedly and hit the victim on her right thigh with an unknown object, causing her to fall.
Daka states that Micheal is alleged to have held her in the mouth and dragged her to the nearest unfinished building, where she was made to drink a liquid she did not know very well, thereby becoming unconscious.
He says two suspects, aged 16 and 19, were apprehended after being found on the scene, adding that Police issued a medical form and following this event, the victim was immediately taken to Livingstone Teaching Hospital.
Daka says it was at the hospital where it was confirmed that she had been resurrected, and she was able to talk, though she was still weak after this horrific incident occurred.
This horrific incident on the holy Festival of Christmas was disheartening, and it filled anger in people’s minds who are demanding the Police to hold the accused as soon as possible and provide justice to the girl.
The condition of women in Zambia is deteriorating, and the government should not be solely held liable for these incidents. Instead, the country’s citizens should learn to pay respect to women, and police authorities should make more stringent laws to curb incidences like these in future.