Maria David
THE community of the Omusati Region is again advised to caution children against playing near open water pans and oshanas as three children drowned merely three days after a mother and her two children suffered the same fate.
Three children, all from Angola, drowned in an earth dam on Sunday while catching fish at Ombafi Lake in the Ogongo constituency.
According to Omusati police commander Commissioner Titus Shikongo, the incident occurred around 18:00.The bodies were retrieved from the water on Monday.
Shikongo identified the deceased as Kukaji Muziku Angolan (15), Kengeleni Pedru (15) and Kaunjandelua Lombueleni (13), all from Calueque in Angola.
“It is alleged that four children aged between 13 and 15 were catching fish in the Ombafi earth dam when they all accidentally slipped into the deep water resulting in three of the children drowning,” he said.
He added that the deceased were at the time of the incident in the company of their guardians who were busy bathing in the same dam but on the opposite side.
The three deceased children are believed to be part of a group of 12 family members, who are all Angolan nationals from Calueque, that came illegally into Namibia on Friday 4 March 2022 in search of domestic work.
They reportedly came in search of cultivation work, and were employed to work in a mahangu field at Ombafi village with the assistance of a family member who is a Namibian working as a taxi driver.
Shikongo indicated that the group were temporarily accommodated at Ombafi location.
On 3 March, 25-year-old Lea Gomases and her children, John Sirhute Hamutenya (4) and Chandie Gomases (6), drowned while trying to cross an oshana at the Ontanda village in the Tsandi constituency of the Omusati region.
File photo for illustrative purposes.
