Mozambique: At least 21 killed in wild animal attacks in Manica province this year

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Mozambique: At least 21 killed in wild animal attacks in Manica province this year

3:17 CAT | 22 Oct 2024

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Lusa]

At least 21 people have died in the central Mozambican province of Manica since January, in attacks by wild animals, an official source announced on Monday.

“In Manica province we have had a total of 21 deaths this year, resulting from the conflict between humans and wildlife, mainly attacks by elephants, crocodiles and, in some cases, buffaloes,” Provincial Director of Territorial Development and Environment of Manica, Rafael Manjate, said in statements to Lusa.

Manjate added these human-wildlife conflicts have been increasing in Mozambique due to the drought in that part of the country.

Rafael Manjate said that the 21 deaths in Manica province due to animal attacks were recorded in the districts of Tambara, Guro, Machaze, Mossurize and Sussundenga, where crocodiles, elephants and buffaloes had attacked mainly children, especially when they go to the riverbanks to fetch water.

“This is a concern that we have as a province, but we are managing the situation. The mechanisms to stop these deaths are that, in relation to the crocodile, we encourage the communities, in coordination with the provincial directorate of public works, to open water sources,” Manjate said.

According to Manjate, the government has deployed teams across the affected districts to scare away the animals and avoid conflicts.

“In the cases of elephants and buffaloes, we are raising awareness in the communities so that they do not build farms in the interior, where the pachyderms are most active. We are [encouraging] the communities stay further away from the animals,” he said.

One of the solutions proposed by the Mozambican government is to slaughter the animals considered the most conflict-prone. “We have already slaughtered crocodiles and pachyderms for the most part,” Manjate said, adding that the true source of the conflict is drought.

Lusa previously reported that the number of deaths due to attacks by wild animals has almost tripled in one year, reaching 159 victims in 2023, according to a report by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

In the 2023 Basic Environmental Indicators report, the INE details that the number of deaths due to human-wildlife conflict was 58 the previous year and 56 in 2021, but 97 in 2020 and 42 in 2019.

More than half of the fatalities from these attacks last year were concentrated in the province of Tete (70), followed by Zambézia (31), according to data from the INE, which also states that only the provinces of Sofala and Nampula did not record any deaths.

The province of Tete alone has recorded 137 deaths due to human-wildlife conflict since 2019, according to the INE’s history, Lusa reported on September 30.

The report adds that the number of people injured in these attacks also continues to grow, affecting 114 people in 2023, compared to 70 in the previous year, 51 in 2021, 66 in 2020 and 59 in 2019.

Citing the latest available data, the INE report recalls that Mozambique estimated a population of 9,114 elephants and 64,800 buffaloes, among dozens of large species, in 2018.

According to the same INE report, in 2023 there were 205,375 people living within Mozambican protected areas, in 162 communities, to which 501,737 are added in 504 communities in the buffer zones of these parks and reserves.

According to previous data from the National Administration of Conservation Areas (ANAC), wildlife attacks in Mozambique destroyed a total of 955 hectares of agricultural crops, such as corn and cassava, from 2019 to 2023.

Source: Lusa