New Era

OSHAKATI - The mystery of unknown creatures that allegedly eat up livestock at villages in the Ongwediva constituency continue to haunt residents.

Since last month, the number of goats and chickens that have been eaten up by the so-called creatures keeps growing. Some villagers have lost up to 10 goats. All that they found were hides of the goats that allegedly fell prey to the monsters. Some of them had to shut down their kraals as all of their animals were eaten up.

Now villagers are urging the owners of the alleged witchcraft-related creatures to lock up their "animals".

"We are begging them to please lock up their creatures. We have children that go to school, we are scared for their lives," said Laimi Kambode, who lost seven goats in two consecutive days.

Villagers are also concerned that the "tigers" are finishing up their animals, which are their source of income.
According to them, a woman in their village is now mentally disturbed - all because of fear.

"Whenever the sun goes down, all she wants is the soil to swallow her up. The other day, I went to her just to talk to her and give her counselling. The poor woman is traumatised," said one villager.

Because of what they are going through, the residents of Ongwediva constituency want to organise a march and demonstrate against a man and her sister, believed to be the owners of the monsters.

They claim that the monsters have reproduced hence the owners can no longer afford to feed them.

Consequently, they (owners) released them into the village where they are now feeding on other people's livestock.

Last week Sunday, Kambode, a villager from Oipundi village was forced to set fire to her grass. Kambode believed that the unknown creatures were hiding in her thatching grass pond. She allegedly had to seek permission to burn the grass in her yard from the village headman.

"On Sunday morning around 06h00, one of my children heard some strange noises coming from the pond.

She lit up her cellphone and saw two big tigers and two smaller ones eating up a goat," said Kambode.

The creatures allegedly chased the children after which they went back to the goat carcass.

"We called the police but they did not go into the long grass. We somehow understand them (police), they are only human. No one would risk his/her life to the beasts," Kambode adds.

When the police left, Kambode was prompted to torch her thatching grass. No burnt animal remains were, however, found after the grass burnt down. This was despite the fact that villagers were sure that the "tigers" were in the pond at that time.

Anna Nakwatumba, who lost four goats and chickens in two days, said although the owners of the creatures are allegedly well-known, the villagers are afraid to confront them.

"We don't really have grounds to confront them because we may search the house and find nothing. These are witchcraft-related animals, they are not God's creatures," said Nakwatumba.

Last month Olivia Shikongo of Oikango village had her goats eaten up by the creatures leaving her with two kid goats.

According to Shikongo, on July 3, 2009 five of her goats were all eaten up. Like all villagers whose animals fell prey to the alleged monsters, all were left of her goats were hooves and heads of some goats; while other goats had their stomachs cut open and had no intestines or liver.

Oshana Police spokesperson, Christina Fonsech, confirmed that the police were called to villages where unknown creatures were destroying livestock. According to her, the creatures' footprints were bigger than dog's footprints, and police could not pin-point what type of animals they were.

"We followed them (footprints) but they just walked until a spot where they just vanished. It is difficult to explain what happened to those footprints because it looked as if they climb on something but it was an open space with no trees or grass, so we don't know what happened," she said earlier.

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