A 54-YEAR-OLD Kariba woman, Sinai Mpofu was yesterday attacked and killed by an elephant while coming from a fishing expedition.
The deceased was in the company of two colleagues who escaped to safety when the elephant emerged from the bush in the Chiwara area and charged towards them.
Mpofu was not fortunate as she tripped and fell while trying to run away.
One of the survivors,Pedzisai Chabeta said:”We witnessed the elephant attacking our colleague from a distance. When we returned to the scene, we found her lifeless before proceeding to Nyamhunga Police Post to file a report."
Kariba Residents Trust Chairperson Munyaradzi Jokonia, who was at the scene, expressed his sorrow over the loss of life.
"We are appealing to the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) to expedite the Bill to compensate victims of wildlife attacks.
“Just two weeks ago, we witnessed another incident in which a man was killed by an elephant," said Jokonia .
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ZimParks spokesperson Tinashe Farawo described the incident as sad and unfortunate. "We can confirm that there was an unfortunate incident which happened yesterday afternoon where a woman in her fifties was trampled to death.She was part of a group of women which were coming from fishing from Lake Kariba,” said Farawo.
He added: “After we received the sad news,we tracked the elephant and managed to eliminate the problem animal but we continue to encourage residents to take hid of our warnings,when we go out doing our awareness campaigns, residents must take heed of our warnings.We also discourage residents from walking along bushy areas especially, well -known elephant corridors.”
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), between 2010 and 2019, there were 1 158 reported human-elephant conflict incidents in Africa, 443 human fatalities and 557 injuries.The countries with the highest number of human-elephant conflict incidents include South Africa (234 incidents, 104 fatalities), Kenya (155 incidents, 55 fatalities),Tanzania (123 incidents, 43 fatalities), Botswana (92 incidents, 25 fatalities) and Zimbabwe with 84 incidents, 22 fatalities.
