A pensioner and his family from Silumbi Village in the Katima Rural Constituency in the Zambezi Region lost everything that was kept in a hut that was used as a kitchen, which caught fire and burned down in the early hours of Monday.

Eugene Simwanza told nbc News at Silumbi that he woke up to find his hut in the same courtyard ablaze at 03h00 in the early hours of Monday.

He says there was no fire in the hut, nor was it connected to electricity, and they do not understand where the fire came from after midnight.

Simwanza says nothing was salvaged from the burning hut as the flames were already too intense to do anything.

"The loss I suffered is too much; we lost all our cooking utensils, all our pots, the cupboard, the stove, 50 kg of maize meal, and the dining set, all got destroyed in the fire."

The headman at Silumbi Sub-Khuta, Bornwell Matengu, said that it is hard to understand because the cooking hut next to the burnt hut had no fire at the time they went to sleep.

Matengu said he reported the fire to the constituency office at Bukalo, who arrived in the morning to assess the damage caused by the fire.

He is appealing to good Samaritans to assist the victims, who lost all their food and other essentials.

"I want to request sincerely to the government and other institutions and individuals who can assist in disasters of this nature to at least assist the old man because he has nothing as a pensioner whose pension has been exhausted. The loss he incurred is severe; they don't have any food to eat, only one glass plate was left from all the dishes they had, and the rest were reduced to ashes in this hut."

The loss is estimated by the victim at more than N$30,000.