Hunger: Police Concerned Over Wheat Theft

By: Lackson Kanyoza

Malawi police in the Eastern region district of Machinga have expressed concerns about the rise of ambushed trains carrying wheat from Mozambique into the country.

Due to the hunger crisis which is roaming across the country, people in Machinga are reported to have resorted to stealing wheat flour from the trains between the Nayuchi and Liwonde route in order to feed their families.

However, the southern region assistant commissioner of police Foster Mwale said they are concerned because people are risking their lives since they steal from a moving train.

“The malpractice is heavily happening at Nayuchi and Liwonde where these people ambush the trains and steals the wheat while the train is in motion. As police, we are greatly concerned with this trend because people are putting their lives at risk.

“We condemned this misconduct during a meeting that we had with the communities but people still continue to steal the wheat. Few days ago, we deployed Police officers to the scene but the community stormed the police and our officers were injured, “he said.

Mwale however, said that they have contacted the Central and Eastern African Railway (CEAR) to release some funds so that we should mount a police camp at Nayuchi and Liwonde train stations.

” This place needs to be safeguarded day and night and right now, we are just waiting for a response from CEAR for the funding so that we should deploy enough police officers in order to bring the situation under control because we are going to have camps between the railways,” said Mwale.

It is also reported that some people even ambush the trains with the aim of stealing diesel which they then sell to minibus drivers.

This development comes after the Malawi government assured the general public that there is enough maize to feed hunger victims across the country.