The boy is currently being treated in a hospital.

A 10-year-old boy is battling for his life at Kamwenge health centre, Southwest Uganda, after a Kibale National Park chimpanzee bit off his buttocks, the media reported on Wednesday.

The boy identified as Paddy Ankunda, was attacked by the chimpanzee on Saturday June 1, as he was walking along the forest in Kibale National Park in the afternoon with a friend identified as Amos Tukundane, 13.

According to his friend, who escaped, the chimpanzee attacked him from behind as he was moving from his home in Kahungye Parish and when he tried to escape, it over powered him and grabbed him before eating off his buttocks.

Mary Katusiime, Ankunda’s mother, currently taking care of him in the hospital, said that she was shocked when she heard that her only son had been eaten by the chimpanzee.

“I was shocked when I was called by a neighbour who broke the bad news to me.

“At first, I thought that he had died, but when I reached the health centre where he had been admitted, I realised that he had lost all the buttocks,” Ms. Katusiime told newsmen.

She appealed to the government to take measures to guard people living near the protected areas from the animals.

“We have a very big challenge here as neighbours to the protected area because the animals attack us,” Ms. Katusiime said.

The Kibale National Park in Southwest Uganda is a protected evergreen rain forest, covering 766 square kms and located between 1,100 and 1,600 metres.

(NAN)