On June 12, 2022 Bishop Gervas Nyaisonga, Archbishop of Mbeya Diocese in Tanzania, announced that on the afternoon of June 11, 2022, the body of Father Michael Samson, a Malawian priest of the African Missions Society Chau, working with the diocese of Mbeya, was found on the Meta River and cut into pieces.
The incident came just a few months after Father Francis Kangwa, a Zambian, also of the African Missions Society, who was working with the Diocese of Dar es Salaam, St. John Paul II Parish, was found dead in a pool of water. at the house where his father lives.
Earlier, on June 10, 2022, Father Michael Samson was reported missing while he was staying at the Mbeya Catholic Church Youth Center.
Brutal murder
Amos, a motorbike taxi driver, said a young boy was passing by the river and saw Samson's father's body and ran to call him while he was parked nearby.
He told The Citizen: “When we got there, we saw a hand with a wristwatch in the water and we approached and saw a body wrapped in a blanket; We look for government officials and police. They discovered that the limbs of the body had been severed.”
He added: “This is a brutal murder. The dead man's head, body, legs and neck were cut into pieces."
A government official said Father Samson had a habit of walking every afternoon around the Youth Center.
Condolences of the Bishops' Conference of Malawi
Father Henry Saindi, General Secretary of the Bishops' Conference of Malawi issued a statement on Fr. serving as a missionary in the Archdiocese of Mbeya in Tanzania.”
"According to the official announcement by Archbishop Gervas John Mwasikwabhila Nyaisonga, Archbishop of Mbeya, Father Mawelera went missing while at the Mbeya Catholic Church Youth Center at 6pm on June 10, 2022. Father was found dead on June 11, 2022 in the Sabasaba area in Mbeya.”
The Malawi bishops' conference also extends its condolences to the African Missionaries, Archbishop Mwaisonga of Mbeya, Bishop John [Ryan] of the Diocese of Mzuzu where he came from, Father Samson's family and parishioners.