The bodies of 27 men, believed to be migrants from Ethiopia, were dumped in a farming area on the outskirts of the capital after they died of suspected hunger and exhaustion, authorities said.

A sole survivor was found alive in the early hours of Sunday morning and rushed to a Lusaka hospital for treatment, while the dead were transported to the mortuary for identification and post-mortems to determine the exact cause of death, police said.

Preliminary police investigations showed the victims were all males aged between 20 and 38 who had been dumped along a road by unknown people.

"Police and other security wings have since instituted investigations into the matter," police spokesperson Danny Mwale said in a statement. 

Ethiopian migrants often use Zambia when travelling to countries such as South Africa, though reports of deaths in transit there are rare.

VOA News