Local News

'Nabbed Serengeti murder suspects to be named on Friday'

PRIME suspects, highly believed to have taken  part in raiding a tourist camp in western Serengeti and killed  two people including a Dutch tourist, are expected to be named today, the police force said on Thursday.

"Already, we have arrested two prime suspects and we are still hunting five more. We will disclose their names on Saturday," Mara Regional Police Commander (RPC) Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police (SACP) Absalom Mwakyoma,  told the 'Daily News' on Thursday.

The two suspects have been arrested and were in possession of two submachine guns (SMG) and six rounds of ammunition, according to the RPC.  "They were also caught with bags containing things that we believe were grabbed from visitors during the robbery. And they don't even reject it. They are cooperating with us," the regional police chief said.

He hinted that the arrested suspects are residents of the neighbouring Tarime district without going into details, saying disclosing their names might disrupt the ongoing efforts to arrest their accomplices.

On Wednesday last week, an unknown number of armed bandits raided Ikoma Tented Camp which is located a few metres from the world's famous Serengeti National Park and shot dead a Dutch tourist Eric Brewelmans and the camp assistant manager Mr Renatus Bernard.

The incident prompted two ministers Ambassador Hamisi Kagasheki (Tourism and Natural Resources) and Dr Emmanuel Nchimbi (Home Affairs ) to tour Serengeti to assess the situation on the ground, as part of the government's  immediate  measures to beef up security  in the area.

A special operation team from the police force was immediately dispatched to Serengeti to hunt down the killers in collaboration with other security agencies based in the district.