Lions kill 20 farmers in Ethiopia

Updated: 9:45 a.m. ET Sept. 20, 2005

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - Lions disturbed by deforestation have killed 20 people and devoured 750 of their domestic animals in Ethiopia, a local news agency said on Tuesday.

The rare daylight attacks, all during August and in the remote south, have forced a thousand peasant farmers to flee their homes and sparked a hunt for the lions, local official Tadesse Gichore told Walta Information Service.

“The lions killed shepherds tending cattle and villagers after breaking into their houses,” Tadesse said of the attacks near his Soro district some 300 miles south of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

“Thousands of people who felt threatened left their abodes and fled to safe areas after the lions killed 20 persons as well as 750 domestic animals last month.”

Authorities were hunting the lions, who began roaming after deforestation disrupted their habitat and caused drought along the Gibe River Valley, Tadesse said.

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