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A MOB has stormed an ape research centre and set it on fire after a chimp named Jeje who “no longer fears humans” killed a baby girl.
The beast ripped the eight-month-old from her mother’s back before taking her into the forest to butcher her.
The prime suspect of the attack, JejeAlamy
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AlamyBaby Yoh Hélène was found horrifically mutilated by the chimp 3km from the Nimba Mountains Nature Reserve.
Witnesses claim she had been disembowelled – perhaps with the help of Jeje’s jungle tools.
The baby’s death has since caused uproar amongst communities who have targeted their anger at the experts studying the animals.
Their fury is also partly due to scientists bringing the eight-month-old baby’s corpse to their Bossou Environment Research institute.
Angered locals ransacked the institutes building, destroying and settling alight expensive equipment including drones, computers and more than 200 documents, the centre’s manager claims.
Local Joseph Doré who took part in the attack said: “It’s the way she was killed, that’s what angered the population.”
Chief researcher Gen Yamakoshi told The Times that the monstrous killing was because the apes “no longer fear humans.”
He also said it wasn’t clear whether this attack or previous ones are for food or “excitement”.
The researcher said: “It is similar behaviour to how chimps treat one another.
“If they are excited they cannot control their behaviour.”
Ecologist Alidjiou Sylla supports the belief that the limited supply of food in the reserve has pushed the animals to leave protected areas more often which, in turn, has increased the likelihood of attacks.
Youth leader Moussa Koya also observed that while “it was not their will” to be violent, “it has become the habit of the chimpanzees.”
There are a mere seven chimps left in Guinea’s Bossou forest which forms part of Nimba Mountains Nature Reserved, close to the subsistence farming communities of the Nzerekore Region.
In 2022 the oldest chimp of the tribe, Fana, died aged 71 and left behind two sons – Foaf and Fanwa.
The little community of apes use stone hammers and anvils to open nuts which is believed to be the most sophisticated act ever observed of humanity’s genetically closest relative.
And while the apes live in the wild, they still share territory and resources with locals who protect them and believe them to be reincarnated ancestors.
But after a series of attacks, Bossou elder Michael Gamada Koïba said locals are now unsure on “what kind of chimpanzees they are”.
Up until 2003, the Bossou chimps had stood at around 21 animals, but lost seven to the flu that year.
It had also negatively been affected by human activities in the area.
Traditionally locals use slash-and-burn agriculture which sees people cultivate land until they become depleted, then clear forests to create new lands in a cycle.
And despite preserving a 320-hectare block of forest around Bossou, surrounding deforestation has cut it off from the remaining Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve – where numerous chimp communities reside.
The reserve is UNESCO World Heritage-listed and straddles Guinea’s bordrs with Liberia and Ivory Coast.
The Nimba Mountains also happen to be home to one of Guinea’s largest iron ore reserves which has sparked concern among environmentalists on the impact of mining on chimps.
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