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A toddler has made a full recovery after being swallowed head first by a hippo while playing near his home.
Police in Uganda say the semi-aquatic animal grabbed the two-year-old “by the head and swallowed half of his body”.
The young boy, named Iga Paul, was then vomited after a man who was nearby scared the hippo by throwing stones at it, Ugandan police said on Monday.
The child was immediately taken to a nearby health clinic after the attack, which took place around 3pm on December 4. He was treated for injuries to his hand before being transferred to Bwera Hospital for further treatment.
He has now been discharged after making a full recovery and receiving a rabies vaccine, according to police.
The incident at the boy’s home, about 800 meters from Lake Edward, is the first time a hippo, which typically weighs about 1.5 tonnes and has large three-chambered stomachs, has strayed from the lake and attacked a child, police said.
Police congratulated the man who rescued the child, Crispas Bagonza, for his courage in scaring the hippo.
Although they are primarily herbivores, hippos are the deadliest large land mammals in the world, killing around 500 people in Africa each year, according to the BBC. Yet the aggressively territorial creatures are considered vulnerable to extinction as a result of habitat loss and illegal hunting.
The force has reminded all residents of the Katwe-Kabatooro area, which is within Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park, to remain vigilant and alert Uganda Wildlife Service rangers of animals that have strayed into their neighbourhoods.
The park, which includes a group of 10 volcanic crater lakes, is home to a wide variety of wildlife, including elephants, crocodiles, chimpanzees, hyenas and lions. Lake Edward is one of Africa’s great lakes and encompasses both Queen Elizabeth Park in Uganda and Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
It was also said on Friday that members of an IS-linked militia were eaten by crocodiles while trying to cross the DRC border in Uganda’s Ntoroko district, roughly 100 kilometers north of where the attack took place of hippos.
According to local media, a defense spokesman said Ugandan armed forces repelled the incursion, killing 17 members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and capturing 13, while several remaining members of the Islamist group, who tried to return across the Semliki River, were “enjoyed” by crocodiles.
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