Girl (13) survives croc attack while fetching water

A 13-YEAR-OLD girl of Chiyabi village in Sinazongwe is nursing wounds after she was attacked by a crocodile as she was fetching water on the banks of Lake Kariba.
Yvonne Nziima, a grade four pupil at Chiyabi Primary School, fought the crocodile last Saturday, before she was saved by her mother, who was tending to vegetables near the lake.
“As I was trying to fetch water, I just felt some serious pain on my left leg, then I realised it was a crocodile, it had bitten me. I tried to fight it while screaming for help,” the girl said in an interview at Choma General Hospital after she underwent medical review.
Yvonne narrated that the reptile was trying to drag her into the lake, and only let go of her after her mother hit it with a hoe.
“My mother and a man who was working in his garden rescued me from the crocodile after she hit it with a hoe….I was scared that the crocodile would eat my leg,” the girl narrated.
She appealed to the relevant authorities to consider drilling boreholes in her village so that young girls do not have to go to the crocodile-infested lake to draw water.
And Yvonne’s aunt, Linda Nkomeki also stressed the need for the local authority or well-wishers to come to their rescue by drilling boreholes in the area.
“It was by the grace of God that this child is alive and we wish the authorities could drill boreholes in our villages or construct some water pumps.
The lake is our only source of water and we cannot avoid going there,” Ms Nkomeki said.
She also appealed to the Zambia Wildlife Authority to consider cropping the crocodiles in the area.

ZambiaDailyMail