Windhoek
Fatal crocodile attacks keep growing in size and number in Kavango East where a crocodile killed a schoolgirl last Saturday while she was swimming in the river.
The latest incident involving man-eating crocs took place at around 09h00 on Saturday at Shighuru.
The girl had gone to the river to fetch water for household needs for her grandparents’ rural homestead. After she filled two containers with water she decided to swim not far from where her two aunts were washing clothes as part of their chores.
John Muyamba, who is a regional reporter for New Era, confirmed the crocodile attack on his niece Laurencia Muyamba, who was aged nine at the time of her savage death.
Detective Chief Inspector Chrispin Mubebo the crime coordinator for Kavango East Region said: “I received the report of that incident that occurred on Saturday.”
Muyamba narrated that the two women only realised their niece was in the croc’s jaws when they saw she was being dragged downstream and deeper into the water.
They promptly alerted the village’s men folk who rushed to the river, boarded some canoes and started searching the river.
Police and environmental officials were also summoned to the scene but they were incapacitated by the lack of a motorised boat. Villagers however continued with their search by dragging nets along the river and their efforts resulted in the girl’s scarred but intact body being retrieved from the river, narrated John Muyamba.
The latest croc victim, who was in Grade 2 at Mukuni Primary School, predeceases both her parents and grandparents.
She will be interred on Saturday while her memorial will be held on Friday.
Villagers along the Kavango and Zambezi rivers are prone to crocodile attacks because they depend on the river for water for cooking purposes and for a multiplicity of other chores.
They are susceptible to these attacks because the spots where they usually fetch water or swim do not have crocodile-proof low-voltage electric fences.
Since January at least seven people have been caught and killed by crocs in Kavango, according to Mubebo the crime coordinator for Kavango East.
He said among the casualties were five people in Ndiyona Constituency, including Muyamba’s niece. One of the victims was killed in Rundu and another victim was caught and killed at Divundu, further stated Mubebo.
This year’s statistics indicate an increase in croc attacks in Kavango as in previous years only three such attacks were recorded in 2013, and four in 2014, said Mubebo.
Environment and Tourism spokesman Romeo Muyunda was yet to verify this data.