A Zimbabwean woman has reportedly told of the horrifying moment she found a baboon "mauling her 1-year-old baby" outside their home in Victoria Falls.
According to the privately-owned Standard newspaper, Jean Gama said she did not believe that her baby would survive after she found the primate with its teeth "sunk into" her daughter's face.
The vicious attack left the baby with huge scars on her head and face, the report said.
"My daughter was playing outside the house with her 12-year-old brother, while I prepared breakfast around 09:00.
"Suddenly I heard her scream like someone who was in severe pain. I rushed outside and found the baboon had sunk its teeth on her scalp and face," Gama was quoted as saying.
She said that she hit the baboon with a huge stone and that was when it loosened its grip and fled.
The baboon apparently "wanted to take away my daughter's doll", she said.
Gama said sought treatment for her daughter in Zambia because there was no medication at health centres in the resort town.
Junior doctors working in the southern African country recently said that it was frustrating working in Zimbabwean hospitals as most of them lacked equipment and drugs.
Following the incident, a respected journalist in Zimbabwe Brezhnev Malaba tweeted: "A baboon attacks a 1-year-old baby in Victoria Falls,inflicting life-threatening injuries.What happens next is even more shocking: because there's no medicine in Vic Falls,the child is taken to Livingstone,Zambia,for emergency treatment. A prime tourist resort with no medication?"
See tweet below
A baboon attacks a 1-year-old baby in Victoria Falls,inflicting life-threatening injuries.What happens next is even more shocking: because there's no medicine in Vic Falls,the child is taken to Livingstone,Zambia,for emergency treatment. A prime tourist resort with no medication?
— Brezh Malaba (@BrezhMalaba) May 14, 2018
ZwNews reported on Wednesday that troops of baboons were terrorising children and women causing growing calls by Chinotimba residents in Victoria Falls for the responsible authorities to intervene and put to an end the destruction caused by the animals.
The baboons were said to have become more violent, terrorising children, stealing foodstuffs and in some cases slapping and biting residents.