Mkulima anusurika kuliwa na simba aliyetafuna ng'ombe wake 6

A Zimbabwean farmer has told how he narrowly escaped being eaten by a lioness for whom he went hunting after she killed six of his cows.

Joel Ngwenya was leapt on by the lion in the Jambezi district near the country's near Hwange National Park 

Joel Ngwenya, 54, recounted how he and the big cat stared at each other for a few moments before she pounced and knocked him to the ground.

Pinned down by her massive paws, he said he fainted with fright but later awoke to find he had escaped with just bites to his arms.

He and four villagers had gone looking for the animal, in Matabeleland North near Zimbabwe's celebrated Hwange National Park, on Tuesday after she killed five of his cows in just one night and one the following day.

They had not gone far when they came face to face with the lioness and one of her cubs. The other hunters ran away into the bush but Mr Ngwenya said he was frozen to the spot.

"It looked straight into my eyes and started roaring while approaching me steadily. At that moment, intense fear engulfed me and I started sweating," he told the Bulawayo Chronicle.

"It then came on top of me. I looked at it straight into its eyes too. It just stood there looking at me." To his surprise, the animal then walked away to check on its cub. But moments later, it approached him for a second time.


"At that time, it started biting me on both my arms," he said.


He fainted and awoke to find the animal gone. "I don't know what happened.
It just left me lying down and went away," he said.


Now recovering in hospital in Bulawayo, Mr Ngwenya called for better controls on Zimbabwe's wild lion population.


"I would like to urge relevant authorities to do something about these lions because our lives are in great danger," he said.