Zambia fisherman fleeing elephants killed by crocodile

Fahad Redha

February 9, 2026
3 min read

Zambia fisherman fleeing elephants killed by crocodile

A crocodile attacked a fisherman in eastern Zambia after the 52-year-old was escaping from an elephant herd, according to local police. Dean Nyirenda was on his way back from a fishing trip with a couple of friends before encountering the elephant herd. They fled with Nyirenda jumping into a stream near the Luangwa River.

“That is when he was attacked by a crocodile by biting his right thigh,” local police chief Robertson Mweemba told reporters. Zambia has a thriving population of elephants, the BBC says, and this has resulted in conflict between humans and wildlife which have resulted in deaths in recent years.

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Nyirenda managed to escape the crocodile after hitting it with a stick that he had in his hand, according to police, and “dragged himself from the stream, Mweemba said.

The other two fishermen were watching from a distance. They went to help, carrying Nyirenda from the riverbank while he was heavily bleeding, Zambia state-run news website, ZNBC said.

“They tried to stop the bleeding but unfortunately he died,” Mweemba added.

Wildlife officers were brought to the scene, finding deep bite marks in Nyirenda’s right thigh, which proved fatal.

Luangwa River flows through the South Luangwa National Park in Zambia. It holds among the largest concentration of Nile crocodiles in the continent, conservationists say. Of the 26 wildlife-related deaths in 2023, 15 were caused by crocodile attacks, many of which were along the Luangwa River, community-led conservation NGO Resource Africa says.

Authorities in the country have previously called on locals and tourists to be extremely cautious when travelling around any of the wildlife hotspots, adding that they have considered measures to reduce conflicts between humans and wildlife, including building protective fences in some areas.

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