Africa-Press – Namibia. TESTIMONIES delivered by Botswana Defence Force (BDF) soldiers revealed that the Nchindo brothers and their Zambian cousin were shot 32 times before they all went down in their canoes or plunged into the river.
Brothers Wamunya, Martin and Tommy Nchindo, as well as Sinvula Munyeme, were shot dead by the BDF in November 2020 when they were allegedly spotted at night on the Chobe River as suspected poachers.
In an update of this week’s ongoing court proceedings in Kasane, chairperson of the Namibian Lives Matter movement Sinvula Mudabeti stated that of the seven BDF soldiers who left the BDF camp in two boats, four soldiers on one of the boats fired a total of 32 shots that killed the fishermen.
They were identified as sergeant Mufazo, private Kafila, private Ramosa and private Majuta. He was in charge of counting the ammunition given to the soldiers and recording how many bullets were used.
He said that the seven soldiers carried 815 bullets in total. He mentioned the four soldiers who fired the shots and added that he did not want to look at the dead men when they arrived at the scene.
The police never took a statement from him. Witness 12, Lieutenant Colonel Siloyakumo, was the joint Task Force Commander. He stated that he received an oral report at about 18:45 from an officer he refuses to name.
The report was of four men who crossed into Botswana with two rifles. He says he dispatched scuba divers, who never found the alleged weapons. Witness 14 is senior land surveyor Uabilwe Hohozizwe, who stated that on 24 November 2020 she was assigned to collect data at points near Sedudu Island.
This was to establish in which territory the incident took place. She said the BDF showed her points in the Chobe River marked as A, B, C and D, but she was never told what happened there.
She then submitted a report that included a letter from the Surveyor-General, a list of coordinates, Map 1 and Map 2. Witness 16 is Kabelo Kjari, a senior land surveyor who generated two maps of the area.
He testified that the incident scene points to the international boundary, but the encounter between the BDF and the Namibian fishermen was in Botswana.
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