Chimp rips eight-month-old girl from her mother's arms, carries her into the forest and b*tchers her

Thursday, September 26, 2024 - A chimpanzee, famous for its tool-using ability, ripped a baby girl from her mother's arms before taking her into the forest to butcher her and harvest her organs.

Seny Zogba was working in a cassava field in Bossou, in Guinea, when a chimp sunk his teeth into her and stole her eight-month-old baby, named as Yoh Hélène.

The little girl's mutilated body was found 3km from the Nimba Mountains Nature Reserve.

Witnesses fear the chimp used his tools to main the girl as they claim the infant had been eviscerated.

Chief researcher Gen Yamakoshi chillingly told The Times the gruesome killing was because the chimps "no longer fear humans."

An angry mob directed their fury towards the scientists who have been studying the remarkable animal community for decades, and brought the baby's corpse to their Bossou Environmental Research Institute.

They then ransacked the building, destroying and setting fire to equipment including drones, computers and over 200 documents, the centre's managers said.

Joseph Doré, a young member of the group from Bossou, said: "it's the way she was killed, that's what angered the population."

Local ecologist Alidjiou Sylla said the dwindling supply of food in the reserve was pushing the animals to leave the protected area more frequently, increasingly the likelihood of attacks.

The research centre said it had recorded six chimpanzee attacks on humans within the reserve since the start of the year.

Moussa Koya, another youth leader, said "It was not their will [to be violent] but it has become the habit of the chimpanzees."

Mr Yamakoshi said it wasn't clear whether the attacks are because of food or "excitement".

"It is similar behaviour to how chimps treat one another," he said. "If they are excited they cannot control their behaviour."

In 2022, the oldest member of a chimpanzee tribe, Fana, died in solitude age 71, leaving behind two sons, Foaf and Fanwa.

The tiny community of apes use stone hammers and anvils to crack open nuts - the most sophisticated act ever observed of humanity's genetically closest relative.

The great apes live in the wild but share the territory and its resources with the locals, who protect them, believing them to be reincarnated ancestors.

Chimpanzees are respected in Guinea and traditionally given gifts in the form of food, prompting some to venture out of the protected area and into human settlements, where they can sometimes attack.

But Bossou elder Michael Gamada Koïba said locals now don't know "what kind of chimpanzees they are" after the fatality.