Sunday, July 26, 2009 African Goatsucker

From the New Era (Nambia):

Mysterious Beasts Torment Villagers

by Helvy Tueumuna
21 July 2009

ONGWEDIVA – Unknown creatures that reportedly devour and suck blood from livestock are haunting villagers at Onheleiwa, Oidiva and Oikango of Ongwediva constituency.

Over 20 goats have been killed at Onheleiwa and Oidiva villages and an unknown number at Oikango, where the situation is said to be worse.

Villagers are convinced that the creatures have something to do with witchcraft. They are now accusing an elderly man who has a house at Onheleiwa village and his sister who has a house at Oikango village of being the owners of these strange, blood-sucking beasts.

Oshana Police spokesperson, Christina Fonsech, said the police were called at Onheleiwa last week where they followed the creatures’ footprints.

According to her, the creatures’ footprints are bigger than a dog’s footprints, and police could not identify the creatures.

“We followed them but they walked until a spot where they just vanished. It’s difficult to explain what happened to those footprints because they looked as if they climbed onto something but it was in an open space, so we don’t know what happened,” she said.

Olivia Shikongo had her whole kraal wiped out by the creatures, leaving her with only two kid goats.

According to Shikongo, on July 3 five of her goats were eaten up. All that was left were traces of hooves and heads of some of the goats, while other goats had their stomachs cut open and had no intestines or liver.

“Last Wednesday they came to the kraal again. When I heard the goats making noise, I started to scream. It seems that they could no longer kill the goat that they had bitten so they left. When we went to the kraal in the morning, there were only three goats. One goat, which is the bigger one, was fighting for its life. There was no trace of five other goats that were also at the kraal the previous night,” she explain

According to her, when she and other villagers looked around all they could find were the footprints of the unknown creatures while her five goats seemed to have disappeared into thin air.

Shikongo lost a total of 11 goats in two nights.

“I’m only left with two small goats that we now lock up inside a room in the house,” she said.

Another villager who also lost a goat said he saw the creatures when he ran to the kraal after he heard his animals making noise.

According to him, he found four animals at the kraal but when they saw him, they ran away.

The villagers that claim to have seen the unknown creatures, said they look like tigers. Although the community members are also scared for their lives, they said they understand that the animals do not attack human beings.

“If you find them at night, they just sit still on the side of the path and wait for you to pass by,” said another villager.