No arrests in South Africa mass shootings as death toll rises to 18

One more person has died from mass shootings at two houses on the same street in a South African village over the weekend, bringing the death toll to 18, officials said Monday.

Police are still searching for the assailants who opened fire Saturday on people who had reportedly gathered for a family event in Lusikisiki village in Eastern Cape province.

The shootings, which took place in two separate houses on the same street, fueled outrage over a recent spate of mass shootings in the country.

The motive for the killings remains unknown and police said on Monday that the investigation is continuing and no arrests have been made.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa condemned the killings and promised that the government would deploy all needed resources in the investigation.

He said Monday that 38 people had been killed in previous mass shootings in the past two years and 25 suspects have been arrested.

“I feel deeply for all the families and members of the broader community affected by this attack, and on behalf of all of us as South Africans, I offer you our deepest sympathies," he said.

“While we are united in our grief, we are also united in our outrage and condemnation of this excessive criminal assault which will not go unpunished," he said.

The shootings follow a mass killing in KwaZulu-Natal province in April 2023. Ten members of the same family, including seven women and a 13-year-old boy, were killed at their home.

Sixteen people were fatally shot in a bar in the Johannesburg township of Soweto in 2022, the worst mass shooting in South Africa in decades before the latest killings in Lusikisiki.

South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world. It recorded 12,734 homicides in the first six months of this year, according to police.

___

AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa