Innocent Atuganyira, Buliisa District – Residents of Kabolwa Landing site in Buliisa Sub County, Buliisa District, were left in shock after a hippopotamus attacked and killed one of their fellow villagers on Lake Albert waters, leaving another person with several injuries.
The deceased has been identified as Sunday Opio, aged 27, and the injured as Francis Farwinyo, aged 14, both residents of the same landing site.
According to Mr. Kamanda Kabagambe, the chairperson of LC3 Buliisa Sub County, the incident occurred on Thursday morning at around 8 a.m.
Kabagambe explained that the duo had gone to fetch water on Lake Albert for domestic use. However, while on the lake, the hippopotamus emerged and attacked them, causing their boat to capsize instantly and resulting in Sunday’s death.
He further stated that when the boat capsized, Francis managed to hold onto some water hyacinth and sounded an alarm, prompting other fishermen on the lake to rescue him. However, Sunday could not be found.
At the time of reporting, the body of the deceased was retrieved from the lake by locals with the assistance of officials from Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) and transferred to Buliisa General Hospital Kigoya for postmortem.
Attempts to obtain comments from Mr. Wilson Kagoro, the Wildlife Conservation Warden at Murchison Falls National Park, were unsuccessful as his known phone numbers were off.
When contacted, Albertine region police spokesperson Julius Hakiza stated that he was yet to gather information regarding the incident.
