A 16-month-old toddler in an eastern region of South Africa was yesterday crushed to death by a giraffe, the police have confirmed, in a rare attack by the world’s tallest mammal.
Africa Today News, New York gathered that the attack happened at a game farm around 270 kilometres (168 miles) northeast of the port city of Durban.
Police spokeswoman Nqobile Gwala in an interview with reporters disclosed that a 25-year-old mother and her 16-month-old daughter were attacked around 1400 GMT at Kuleni Farm in the Hluhluwe area “when they were trampled by a giraffe”.
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She pointed out that the girl was taken to a nearby doctor’s practice ‘where she died’, while the mother was rushed to hospital for medical attention where she is in a critical condition.
Police have launched an investigation into the incident. Giraffes do not usually attack humans.
In another report, the President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday pledged his government’s ‘unapologetic’ backing for the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) in Western Sahara which has been partially recognised.
Africa Daily News, New York reports that the disputed status of Western Sahara – a former Spanish colony widely seen as a ‘non-self-governing territory’ by the United Nations – has shown pity Morocco against the Algeria-backed pro-independence Polisario Front since the 1970s.
‘We are concerned about the silence that persists in the world about the struggle for self-determination for the people of Western Sahara,’ Ramaphosa said during a visit to Pretoria by Polisario leader Brahim Ghali.
‘We find that other struggles are articulated at a higher decibel…and that is why as South Africans we are clear, we are firm and we are unapologetic in relation to our support for Sahrawi people.’
‘It’s a just struggle, it’s a noble struggle, it’s an honourable struggle, a people who want to determine their own destiny through self-determination,’ said Ramaphosa, drawing a comparison with South Africa’s fight against the white minority apartheid regime.
The Polisario Front is campaigning for an independent state in Western Sahara, a vast stretch of phosphate-rich desert that was controlled by Spain between 1884 and 1975.