There is a sudden rise in deadly conflict between humans and wildlife in the country especially in areas around protected game reserves and national parks.

In recent days in Chikwawa, for example, wild buffaloes have killed three people and injured several. Livestock as well.

The people of Laiton village in the area of Traditional Authority Ngabu in the district now attest to this. On June 15, 2025, a fuming buffalo invaded the village sending scared villagers in all directions.

Our visit to the village noted that people there are still in perpetual panic, fear and hopelessness.

One of the villagers, Zuze Alfred, told Zodiak that when the buffalo stormed the village, he went up in a tree, from where he was watching below. He told us that the buffalo first killed a cow and later descended on an old woman who died some minutes after the incident.

“At first people mistook the buffalo for a cow until one man shouted for everyone to run away, old and young had to run away but two women failed to make it, one elderly woman was killed and a mother who had a baby at her back injured while the four months baby boy died on the spot,” said Alfred.

Sarai Madalitso is 31. She is daughter to Nelifa Failosi,65. Her mother died a cruel death. Failosi was crushed at the feet of the beast. She died of deep stomach and head cuts. Sarai said this was animal trespass. She expects compensation.

“My mother died a painful death with deep cuts on the stomach and head, I am still devastated, we hope the government is going to compensate us,” explained Madalitso.

Seve Makala is a girl aged 14 and she has fresh memories of surviving a buffalo attack. Unlike Failosi, Seve had the energy and muscle to escape to safety. Of course, with minor injuries already inflicted on her left leg in the one-on-one chase with the beast.

Apart from killing two people in the village, the irate buffalo caused serious injuries on three people while two others went away with minor ones.

Tchale Ali is currently bed-ridden at Chikwawa district hospital after a buffalo attack. He said he was innocently sitting at house’s verenda when the buffalo came visiting and broke his leg.

“I was just coming from my farm and while seated on my veranda, the buffalo attacked me, breaking my left leg, some injuries on my head and I am currently experiencing pains in my chest,” said Ali.

Laiton village is located within a trade centre called Jombo. It is approximately 15 kilometres from Lengwe National Park and some 400 metres from M1 road. When the buffalo left Laiton village, two people were dead, five injured and one cow killed. A day later, game rangers killed the buffalo at a nearby graveyard, half a kilometre away from the besieged village.

Lengwe National Park sits on 887 square kilometres of land and is in the traditional jurisdiction of traditional authorities Ngabu, Lundu, Ndakwera and Chapananga.

Our findings show that apart from Lengwe, human-animal conflicts are wide-spread in Kasungu, Vwaza and Liwonde national parks. The genesis of the problem is vandalism of the perimeter fences around these protected natural resources areas as humans search for pasture for their animals, farm land, poaching and cutting of trees for firewood, charcoal burning and timber making.

Wildlife and environmental expert, Osward Bonongwe who works for Wildlife and Environmental Society of Malawi (WESM) has called for a review of wildlife act and the policy arguing that the current laws favour animals more than people.

“We acknowledge that this is a serious problem and Lengwe is just a current example but similar cases have happened in Vwaza, have happened in Liwonde and have happened in many areas where people have lost lives because animals have bounced out of protected areas and have gone to residential areas and kill people.

“The Wildlife policy is not accommodative, there should be a way to compensate people who have been injured and those who lost their loved ones,” said Bonongwe.

Brighton Kumchedwa is Director of Parks and Wildlife. Kumchedwa says the breakout of buffalos at Lengwe has been fueled by the vandalism of the wire by the surrounding villagers. He says 50 kilometers of the fence was damaged and stolen, causing them to lose over K100 million. On the compensation of the victims, Kumchedwa adds that the law is silent.

However, rights activist, Micheal Kaiyatsa, demands the government to put in place strong measures to protect humans as a priority as opposed to focusing on protecting animals. For Kaiyatsa, victims of these attacks must be compensated.

“The Demands for compensation are justifiable especially when you consider the fact that the government has the responsibility to make sure that animals are protected and make sure that people are also protected from the animals.

“So, in this case, if people are attacked in their homes, in their communities, in their villages, then they are justified to demand compensation and the government needs to provide that,” said Kaiyatsa.

Two weeks before the Laiton village incident, stray buffaloes also invaded Ndakwera area.

Village Headman Masaza of Ndakwera area blames the attacks on the damage of the fence around Lengwe national park by villagers and lack of monitoring by Lengwe security personnel. He believes there should be shared responsibilities to stop the attacks.

Paramount Chief Lundu says the damage and theft of the park fence wire has exposed humans to deadly conflict with wild animals such as on-going buffalo attacks and killings.

The laws of Malawi are clear on safeguarding protected areas. But all that is ultimately for the benefit of human beings hence the need to ensure that human safety comes first.

It is imperative that in the quest to safeguard the protection of protected areas, villagers should be part of all processes. They should own the areas and desist from damaging the infrastructure. That would be the first step to sustainable protection of humans and the wild.

Otherwise, the human-wildlife conflict will not end.