Four people have drowned in Lake Albert, Uganda after their boat which they were travelling in was hit by a hippo.
Eye witnesses said that the incident occurred at a popular landing site in Ndaiga Sub County.
Three of the four deceased have been identified by police as: Mumbere Mugulu, 18; Kenneth Musinguzi, 17; and Alex Tulinawe, 14.
“The deceased had on Monday gone to fish when they were attacked by a hippo that caused their boat to capsize at about 5:30pm,” the Albertine regional Police spokesperson Julius Hakiza told local media on Wednesday.
Hakiza said on Wednesday that the bodies of the deceased were recovered around mid-day Tuesday following a joint police operation with local fishermen. They were later handed over to their families for burial.
According to the Ndaiga Sub County chairperson, Oscar Cunyai, the incident occurred around 50 metres from the shoreline in full view of several fishermen who were also intending to join the night fishing expedition.
“We have many hippos at various landing sites in our Sub County and we co-exist with them. We suspect the hippo which attacked them to have newly given birth because they become more alert and wild when they have calves,” Cunyai said.
He said the fishermen who were still at the shoreline were scared to get into the water to save their colleagues’ lives because the hippo was charging in various directions after snapping the canoe boat.
Hippos cannot swim, instead to move about underwater they pull-off a kind of gallop along the riverbed. A distant cousin of cetaceans, they have to keep their skin moist and will regularly bathe in open-water.
