The residents of Oriyoi in Malaba, Tororo district have called upon Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) to rescue them from a monkey that is attacking and biting children in the area.

This follows residents reporting to police on several occasions but were not being helped.

According to Jane Mukite Okurut, the Director of Tororo Education Center (TEC) in Eastern Uganda, a pupil at her school was bitten by a monkey belonging to Emmanuel Joewel, a resident of Oriyoi A village, adding that, this is the second child from the same village in a span of two weeks to be attacked by the same monkey.

Okurut said that, the monkey attacked the school on Monday November 6, 2023, bite a child (names withheld), and took off. The child was rushed to Mudakori Health Center III in Tororo for treatment.

“The monkey attacked the school and bite a child; it has been moving around biting every animal it comes across, like pigs, dogs and goats, efforts to talk to the owner to have the said monkey killed have fallen on deaf ears,” Okurut said.

Michael Ekolite, the Local Council I Chairperson said that, he has received numerous complaints from the residents and has tried to engage Joewel to have his monkey put out of action peacefully, but it has not yielded any positive results, as the owner seems adamant and not willing to.

“He does not want his monkey killed and asked that should it be killed, it should be returned to him for a proper burial,” Ekolite said.

Okurut together with the other residents of Orioyi, called upon UWA to come to their rescue and save them from the monkey before it causes more havoc.

Despite efforts by Uganda Wild Life Authority to create buffer zones, to gazette wild animals, stray animals have continued to evade and cause havoc on people, domestic animals and gardens. The wild animals majorly elephants, Hippopotamus, crocodiles and Buffalos stray into the community almost on a daily basis causing havoc to locals and garden crops. In 2022, two people were killed by these stray animals in Kasese.