Conflict between humans and animals inside a park in Ethiopia designated as an elephant sanctuary is continuing to claim the lives of both people and the elephants.
The Babile Elephant Sanctuary, 560km (350 miles) east of the capital Addis Ababa, covers 3,000 square kilometres (1,160 sq miles) of land.
Humans are not supposed to settle inside the park, but settlements are built as people are looking for land to farm on.
Sanctuary head Adam Mahammad said that in the past three months alone elephants have killed five people and three elephants have died.
Officials figures show in the past 15 months elephants have killed 13 people, and 15 elephants were killed.
The clashes have escalated due to the increasing demand for land inside the park.
Mr Adam told the BBC that he was concerned that the park’s elephant population – which now number in the low hundreds – could disappear if present trends continue.
He estimates that around 3,000 people now live inside the park.
Last year satellite analysis by the University of Oxford and the Born Free Foundation revealed that the number of illegal houses built in the sanctuary more than doubled in the 11 years to 2017.
There are elephants in other parts of the country as well but poaching has endangered their existence.
BBC
