News Search Search this site or the web powered by FreeFind Site search Web search Story archive		October 4, 2002, Friday RIVER OF DEATH THE HIGH PRICE OF SURVIVAL Gethin Chamberlain FOR the people of Nyaika village in the south of Malawi, hunger means spending six hours a day up to their knees in a crocodile-infested marsh searching for the lilies which they will grind up into a sort of porridge which is the only food they have eaten for months. They enter the water knowing that at any moment they could be dragged to their deaths; 14 people from the village have already died this way. Stanford Sabe is one of the lucky ones; he lost a leg to a crocodile two years ago, but escaped with his life. " It came straight at me and bit me on the leg. It was eating my flesh, it was tearing at my right leg, sawing at it," he says. "I had a knife in my hand and I cut the crocodile on the back. I was shouting for help and my friend came to my rescue. I was taken and put in a canoe and paddled to the shore. The canoe was almost filled with blood. I thought I would die then. "My friend and other people on the beach brought me to the village and they took me on a bicycle ambulance to the hospital five kilometres away. At the hospital, they amputated my leg" The hospital has treated about 25 people already this year for crocodile bites, including a man whose genitals were ripped off, but most victims are never found.
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