A 35-year-old Rwandan national has died after he committed suicide by hanging while in Malawi police cell at dzaleka refugee camp in Dowa.

Dowa police spokesperson Richard Kaponda has identified the deceased as Claude Emmanuel who committed the offence on Tuesday.

According to Kaponda, the deceased was staying alone at Dzaleka after he separated with his wife because of alcohol and drug abuse.

“He was put in police cell after police received a complaint that he was throwing stones and liquor bottles at his house. He was charged with conduct likely to cause breach of peace but while being searched by officers, he was also found with chamba,” said Kaponda.

He was immediately thrown into custody where he was reported to have assaulted his friends.

Due to that, the deceased was placed into another custody.

While there, he tore off his shirt and made a rope that he used to hang himself with.

Postmortem conducted at Dzaleka health centre indicated the death was due to suffocation.