Girl, 14, killed by lion in Kenya

KENYA: A 14-YEAR-OLD girl has been killed by a lion on the outskirts of Nairobi, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said.

The child was snatched from a residential compound on a ranch next to Nairobi National Park, according to the conservation agency.

The alarm was raised by another teenager and KWS rangers followed tracks to the nearby Mbagathi River, where they found the primary school girl’s remains.

The lion has not been found but KWS said it had set a trap and deployed search teams to look for the animal.

The agency added that additional security measures had been taken to prevent any further attacks.

Nairobi National Park lies just 10km (six miles) from the city centre and is home to animals such as lions, buffalos, giraffes, leopards and cheetahs.

It is fenced on three sides to stop animals roaming into the city but it is open to the south to allow animals to migrate in and out of the area.

While lions often come into conflict with humans in Kenya, especially over livestock, it is not common for people to be killed.

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Last year, CCTV footage captured the moment a lion snatched a Rottweiler dog from another home near Nairobi National Park.

KWS also reported that a 54-year-old man was killed by an elephant on Saturday.

The incident happened in the central Nyeri country, about 130km (80 miles) north of Nairobi.

The elephant was grazing in Mere Forest when it attacked the man, who sustained serious chest injuries, fractured ribs and internal trauma.

He was taken to hospital where he died from his injuries. Meanwhile, the remains of at least 117 victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi were given a decent burial on Friday in a village in western Rwanda as part of the ongoing commemoration of the 31st anniversary of the genocide.

The remains retrieved from mass graves in different parts of Karongi District were reburied during a commemorative event at Gatwaro stadium in the Bwishyura sector.

Benjamin Byiringiro, the only survivor in a family of eight children, recalled the cruelty with which the Tutsi populations were killed in the area until the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) soldiers arrived to stop the genocide.

Byiringiro, also a university lecturer, said he managed to overcome despair.