Over one hundred Ethiopian immigrants were discovered near Chitego Forest in Tanzania by the local Police on Tuesday. About 72 were retrieved alive although in critical health, while an estimated 43 were found dead. The immigrants are currently receiving treatment at a hospital in Dodoma, Tanzania’s new Capital City.
In search of a more prosperous economic environment, these individuals were illegally transported by a truck across Tanzanian borders, with the hope of eventually reaching South Africa.
However this long and strenuous journey towards betterment was brutally put to an end due to the overwhelming method of transportation. Beginning as a two container truck expedition, they were forcibly cramped into a single one. After the truck driver had realised that people were perishing from suffocation, he unceremoniously dumped them on the side of the road.
Despite boasting one of the highest GDP growth rates in Africa, Ethiopia, a non-oil producing nation, has seen a sharp rise in inflation and essential products. The result has adversely impacted the poor who account for a large proportion of the total population.
This tragic news comes only a week after the bodies of 60 illegal Ethiopian immigrants were retrieved from the shores of Lake Malawi due to the boat they were travelling in being overloaded.
As African economies struggle to gain ground on Western or superior economies, it seems as though the disparity between the rich and the poor, within those countries, continues to grow. As such it has become common practice for citizens from the Horn of Africa, particularly Somalia and Ethiopia, to be transported in scandalous and fatal conditions to reach Africa’s southernmost country in the hope of raising their prospects.
