By MAYA NTANDA –

TWO Children in Kitwe have died after sustaining burns when their father set the house they were sleeping in ablaze.

Six-month-old Wellingtone Zulu and Mapalo Zulu, aged six, died on Thursday after sustaining 92.8 per cent of burns in the inferno in Ipusukilo Township.

Copperbelt police chief Joyce Kasosa said Wellingtone Zulu poured petrol on the house belonging to his former wife, Jane Siame, and set it ablaze on Monday around 23:30 hours, causing serious burns on the family members.

Ms Kasosa said Ms Siame and her three children were rushed to Kitwe Central Hospital (KCH) where two of them died.  

Ms Siame and her other daughter, Betty Zulu, 3, are still admitted to the hospital.

Ms Kasosa said police arrested Mr Zulu on Thursday after he took doom insecticide and was also admitted to hospital.

“Wellingtone Zulu, who set ablaze the house of his former wife Jane, has been arrested after taking doom insecticide.

“He is unconscious and admitted to hospital but two of the children have died due to the burns which were 92.8 per cent,” she said.

The incident was reported to the police by Patrick Kalenga, 28, a carpenter of Ipusukilo Township.

In another incident, police have launched a manhunt for three unknown men who allegedly defiled a 13-year-old girl in Ndeke Township in Ndola.

Ms Kasosa said the girl was allegedly defiled on Wednesday around 09:00 hours by the three men who found her on a road as she ran away from her step-mother who had threatened to beat her.

She told journalists in Kitwe on Thursday that the three men forced the girl in a motor vehicle and took her to a nearby bush where they took turns in defiling her.

In Mufulira, a 29-year-old woman has been arrested for murder after she allegedly dumped her two-month-old baby in a pit latrine.

Ms Kasosa said Doreen Mumba of house number 79, Kawama East Township dumped her baby in the pit latrine because her husband was not looking after it.

Meanwhile, police on the Copperbelt have recovered K306, 250 out of the K1.7 million that was allegedly stolen from Standard Chartered Bank in Kitwe recently.

Various household goods worth K1 million suspected to have been bought using the stolen money were also recovered.

Some suspects are currently appearing in court for aggravated robbery.