By Enyichukwu Enemanna
No fewer that 17 persons have been killed in a mass shooting in a remote town in South Africa, police said, with an assurance that a manhunt has been launched to arrest the perpetrators.
The police also announced that two homesteads in the town of Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape were targeted for the shooting in which 12 women and one man were killed in one location, and three women and one man at a second scene.
An 18th victim is in a critical condition in hospital, the South Africa Police Service said.
The minister of police affairs, Senzo Mchunu is expected to visit the area where the attack occurred.
The victims were relatives and neighbours in Nyathi village, Ngobozana in Lusikisiki, the country’s media outlets have reported.
Multiple sources said the group had been gathered at the houses to prepare to attend a traditional mourning ceremony for a mother and daughter who were murdered a year ago.
The victims had been arranging goods and presents, including furniture, for the event when the attack occurred on Friday night, according to the media reports.
News outlet Dispatch Live quoted local Ingquza Hil mayor Nonkosi Pepping saying: “The gunmen came and shot randomly… This has left the community terrified.”
South Africa Police Service spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe told Newzroom Afrika that there had been a total of 19 people sleeping in two homes at one of the shooting locations.
She said there had been six survivors at one homestead – four women, a man, and a two-month-old child who was uninjured but taken to hospital as a precaution. There were no survivors at the other homestead.
Officials have yet to determine the motive or make any arrests.
Brig Mathe said: “We have a team of detectives that is already on the ground. We have a team of experts coming in from Pretoria that are descending in Lusikisiki, to investigate, to collect all evidence with the aim of apprehending those [who] are behind these callous attacks.”
2023 crimes statistics obtained by Heritage Times HT show that more than 7,500 people, including police officers were murdered in South Africa in three-month period between October and December 2022.
More than 3,000 of these victims died from gun violence, while the rest were killed with bare hands, bricks, knives and other dangerous weapons.
In 2022, gunmen killed 19 people in two taverns in South Africa. Attackers armed with rifles and pistols opened fire in the Orlando East bar in the township of Soweto, killing 15 people and wounding nine.
