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| Business |
| Assailants gouge old woman’s eyes |
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by
Daniel Nyirenda, 11 March 2003
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A 90-year old woman Ethel Chakoma is battling for her life at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) in Blantyre after some unidentified assailants gouged both her eyes in Thyolo.
A general medical practitioner at the hospital Mphatso Phiri said in an interview yesterday Chakoma from Nkaka Village, Traditional Authority Nchilamwera’s area, had both eyeballs removed in the attack and is left with empty orbits.
When visited at her hospital bed in Ward 4B on Sunday, Chakoma could not talk. Her granddaughter Jesse Naveya, who is nursing her, said Chakoma met her fate on Friday morning when she went to harvest some green maize in her garden a few metres away from her (Chakoma’s) house.
She said her grandmother, aged over 70, went missing from that morning and was found unconscious on Saturday morning in the garden during a search by her relatives, headed by Village headman Nkaka.
Naveya said Chakoma was immediately taken to Thyolo District Hospital and was referred to QECH Sunday morning.
“I have never seen such a thing in my life. This is very sad because she was our only parent. She lost all her seven children including my mother,” said Naveya.
Police public relations officer George Chikowi confirmed the incident yesterday, saying police have intensified investigations into the issue in order to apprehend suspects.
A similar incident happened last December in Blantyre in which suspected body parts hunters nearly gouged out eyes from a six-year old boy Hastings Mpahuwa from Bangwe in the city. They only managed to leave him without eyelids and three teeth.
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