Morogoro’s sorrow as metal thieves targets target crosses

Grave after the grave after the grave of this cemetery in the Eastern Tanzanian City of Morogoro occupied.

In some, there is a gap in which a metal crucifix once stood, with others the religious symbol is intended for thieves, hoping to sell it to get it to get it to get it to get it to get it.

More than 250 were targeted at a small section of Cola Municeal Municipal Cemetery alone.

Most evening crimes when insecure and no cemetery workers around.

They left families and sites that are broke, shining anger.

For more than two decades, Pudensiana Chumbi goes to the cemetery once a month to visit his daughter and mother’s graves – and in his distress they are two years. , many times.

The first target is his mother’s tomb that died in 2000.

A few months after the family was able to store to replace the stolen cross in the late 2021, his daughter’s grave was damaged. It’s a place and somewhat old – his daughter died in 1997 aged 15.

Before Ms Chumbi could make a decision about the crucifixion of his daughter, in his anger the new cross in his mother’s grave was stolen.

In a quandaryary about what to do next, he feels the metal that is not an option when it comes to exchanging his daughter’s cross.

“This is my son’s grave – my fourth son,” he said to a concrete cross.

Theft of crosses and markers from graves becomes a disturbing fashion in this part of Tanzania, driven by the rise in need for scrap metal.

“The people who do this is cursed because everyone is deeply saddened by what is happening,” Ms Chumbi told BBC.

“There are some young men who now ask for a charge of graves all night, especially those with tiles.”

Tiles can also be sold to use people as decorations in their home.

Augustine Remmy, Ms Chumbi’s brother, saying it annoys the whole community.

“It’s so bad … If these places fit in honor are subject to bad deeds, it really hurts,” he told the BBC.

The hurrying of thieves appeared in a desperation among some money that overrides behavior about harmful sacred sites.

Criminals can earn between 700 and 870 Tanzanian shillings ($ 0.27- $ 0.34; £ 0.22- £ 0.28) per kilogram.

This is not a large sum of money but it can be enough to pay a plate of food from a retailer or some local cooked alcohol.

“Metal sellers are always purchased without asking questions,” said a man admitting the BBC he stole the crosses from a cemetery to sell to the scrap metal market.

Agree to speak the condition of honesty, he describes how thieves go first to the welders who cut the crosses before going to the scrap merchants.

Traders face to choose to buy cheaper stolen goods or obedience to the law.

Izire Ramadhani, a retailer in Morogoro City Center, remembered how he was, with other jerks in scrap, which caught a man who was trying to sell a stolen cross and told him.

“Then, they used to bring us crosses. But then we took one of them to police, and later sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison,” Mr. Ramadhani told BBC.

He said it brings a decrease in theft of crosses, even if there is a new rise.

Mr. Ramadhani forced him not to buy stolen things.

“If a cross is brought here, the person who sells us is a problem because we take him to the police.”

Thieves also start targeting other hundred markers such as marble tiles and decorations, which are easily sold to other buyers.

Dr Ndimile Kilatu, officer of Morogoro, said city authorities plan to improve the cemetery security by introducing fences and guardments but warned these resources and time.

“It’s not something we can do now or tomorrow.”

He also mentions initiatives to teach metal metal dealers regarding materials that do not have to buy, such as graves of markers and railroads.

Tanzania’s government has also promised to regulate the metal scrap industry.

Deputy Prime Minister Dotto Pifkoy emphasizes need for licensed businesses to follow laws and regulations.

“It is necessary to implement that and keep the educated population on the same subject. We will continue to teach our people to put our infrastructure,” we told our infrastructure, “told us our infrastructure,” told We have our infrastructure, “we told our infrastructure.

Religious leaders also request their communities to do more to prevent those involved in crimes they do not.

Pastor Steven Msigara from Jesus’ gathered in Morogoro called a joint venture to teach young people to respect sacred places.

“We are together, we need to return their dignity, we know some youths exposed to bad deeds but we can return it on the right path,” he said.

For relatives of people who are understood, there is a sense of failure.

Ms Chumbi wants a lot of money spent in cemeteries in the cemeters as well as a commitment to take care of sites with care resting in a place where the loved ones rest.

He was in the process of replacing his mother’s cross a second time – and, like his daughter’s case – choose for concrete.