Police in Lilongwe have launched a manhunt for unknown assailants who brutally murdered a 4-year-old girl by first sexually assaulting her before stabbing her on the neck.

The murder occurred around Njewa along Lilongwe-Mchinji road on April 12, 2022.

The young girl, Fastan Jeliamu, who went missing on Friday, April 08, 2022 at around 1500 hours, was playing with her friend at Pamango Market in the area while her mother was busy working in a restaurant.

It is said that her friend she was playing with told the searching party that Fastan (deceased) was picked from the playing place on a bicycle taxi by unknown person.

Ever since, days of relentless efforts to trace her wherebouts of the girl proved futile.

However, it was up until April 12, 2022 at around 1200 hours when a 58-year-old cattle herder reported home of a dead body he found while grazing his livestock at Njewa Farm.

The body was ably identified by relations to be of the missing girl, Fastan Jeliamu.

Postmortem by Kamuzu Central Hospital personnel established that the girl was sexually assaulted and then stabbed on the neck.

The deceased, Fastan Jeliamu hailed from Kawale Village, Traditional Authority Kayembe in Dowa District.

Meanwhile, police in the district have stepped up investigations to trace the culprits to answer the murder charge