Fears as hippopotamus kills two in Obongi district

Residents of Delo and Maduga villages in Gimara sub-county in Obongi district are terrified after hippopotamus attacked and killed some of their own people.

The RDC of Obongi district, Samuel Hasaka Mpimbaza, stated that despite the fact that the district is surrounded by the River Nile, many hippopotamus continue to attack people. He mentioned those who had gone fishing recently.

The RDC also stated that Obongi district lacks Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) offices. When such cases arise, he said, they usually contact officers from the Adjumani district. He stated that this makes it difficult to manage the situation.

“Despite the fact that Obongi district is near the river, we are facing challenges such as hippopotamus attacking people while they go fishing, capsize their boats, and injure or kill them,” Hasaka said.

“We recently had a case of two young men from Delo and Maduga villages in Gimara sub-county who went fishing and were killed by hippos.”

“And Obongi’s main challenge as a district is that we don’t have any UWA officers…i am appealing to people to avoid going to places which are having hippos as we advocate for officers for Obongi district,” the RDC urged.

Meanwhile, Ali Bakiti, the area manager of UWA’s Adjumani branch, explained that hippopotamus memory lasts for fifty years when they visit areas in a day, making it difficult to chase them away.

Ali also stated that most people are injured by hippopotamus because they have encroached on their gazetted areas.

“When it comes to hippos, a river must have hippos because it is their habitat, and we must accept that if we want fish, hippos must be present. But the conflict between hippos and humans occurs when humans go fishing and catch the fish that are normally used to clean the hippopotamus’ nostrils,” said Ali.

“Two, around the river or lake, there is supposed to be an open space of at least one hundred meters for the hippos to graze, exercise their rights but people have encroached on all these areas,” Bakiti explained.

However, commissioner Obedi Collins Gertrude, the president’s representative in charge of RDCs in the West Nile sub-region, has urged UWA officials to take their duties seriously.

“UWA must get serious with their responsibilities especially when it comes to wildlife injuring and killing people. They should be serious; do not joke with our votes, especially during election season; we do not want to lose,” she stated.

The Uganda Wildlife Authority is a semi-autonomous government agency tasked with conserving, managing, and regulating Uganda’s wildlife species both within and outside protected areas.