RUNDU - Four assailants gagged and bound the hands of a security guard who they murdered at a lodge in Divundu on Monday morning. The crime took place at Ngepi Camp some 200 kilometers east of Rundu.

The suspects managed to proceed to the camp’s office where they stole around N$7 500 in cash. Police reports suggest Markus Mihata Kambinda (40), who was employed by North East Security Company, was stationed at the camp. During the early hours of Monday, he had gone to close the camp’s main gate when the unidentified assailants hit him on the head with a sharp object. His body was later found lying in a pool of blood in the nearby bushes, 100 metres away, by another security guard.

The suspects bound both his hands and covered his mouth with a piece of cloth and dragged his lifeless body into the nearby bushes. A security guard, who was also on duty, went in search of Kambinda after realising that the he had been away for too long. When he reached the gate he saw bloodstains and followed a visible trail of blood until he came across his colleague’s lifeless and brutalized body. The next of kin of the deceased have been informed.

On receiving information about the incident, the police dispatched a team from its serious crimes unit to conduct an investigation.

The investigation got underway early Monday morning, and police seem to have made their first breakthrough after following some tracks that were left behind by the assailants.

It is alleged that one of the tracks led to the house of a Ngepi Camp employee who is employed as a driver. Police also confirmed that the driver, name withheld, did not report for duty on Monday morning - raising suspicion about his possible involvement in the crime. Police also said one of the assailants was well-known to the public, after they identified him based on a description of the tracks.

Employees at the camp did not want to divulge any information when approached for comment, and referred this reporter to the camp owner, Mark Adcock, who is still out of the country. Divundu is slowly becoming a haven of crime, following last month’s shooting at the construction site of the Vision School at Divundu, where a Chinese national was shot dead by unknown gunmen.

By late yesterday afternoon no arrests had been made yet.