Guarded Suspected Poacher Escapes From Hospital


KAROI, August 29, 2009 - A suspected ring leader of poachers who was nursing gun wounds at Karoi hospital escaped under police guard before getting in a gate-away car last week in a matter that is now under investigations.



According to both Karoi police and hospital sources, the suspect who is believed to be the chief suspect in the well planned poaching errands within Zambezi basin, is believed to have been whisked way in a gate away car that was behind the hospital fence after he scaled down the security fence.
The case is the second in a month following a similar escape of a robber from a Harare hospital, suspected to have been part of the robbers that robbed and beat the husband of Regional Intergration and International Co-operation Minister Priscillar Misihairabwi-Mushonga at his home in Mount Pleasant. Dr Chrisopher Mushonga later died as a result of the injuries he sustained during the beatings. The robber had asked nurses to go to the toilet and that was the last they saw of him.
The suspected poacher, who has a bullet that is yet to be removed from his chest, asked the nurses on duty that he wanted to go to the toilet but he sneaked out of the hospital through the toilet window. He scaled down the security fence of the hospital and there is suspicion that a gate away car was waiting for him.
He had been captured in Marinara game ranch after an exchange of gunfire in the area two weeks ago and was still yet to appear in court.
Sources said the incident occurred on Monday night when there was no electricity as the town was under the normal load shedding.
Although police officers from Karoi charge offices were alerted, the search failed to get any positive results.
''The nurses on duty as well as the armed policeman have been quizzed over the escape which was well planned and the issue is sensitive to comment about, '' a hospital source told Radio Voice of the People.
Another source within National Parks authority said there was a shoot-out in Marongora area where eight elephants were shot dead by the organised crime of poachers in the last two weeks.
''There is now an intensified crack-unit of army, National Parks rangers and police in the Zambezi basin to curb rampage by poachers who are on the loose killing elephants, buffaloes, zebra among other animals. The poachers are Zambians working in cahoots with local villagers in the rural areas, a source within National Parks authority who could not be named for professional reasons added.
He further said that Hurungwe rural areas among them Chundu, Kazangarare and Kariba rural in Marogolo fishing camp as well as Chirundu basin have been a hive of activity of poaching for the past two years and anti-poaching is still yet to curb the rampage.
However the recent crackdown has stretched from Chirundu to Nyaminyami area where soldiers are patrolling Mologolo fishing camp among other areas, according to sources.
There was no immediate response from responsible authorities among them army, police and national parks at the time of writing although senior government ministers have been implicated in the poaching of rhinos in Midlands and Matebleland provinces but no arrests have been made.