Rebecca Munkombwe Eye-Gouges Crocodile

In 2019 near Hwange in Zimbabwe, 11-year-old Rebecca Munkombwe heard screams from a stream in Sinderela Village and saw her 9-year-old friend Latoya Muwani being dragged under by a crocodile. As the oldest of seven children playing nearby, she jumped back into the neck-deep water, swam over, and found the reptile clamped onto Latoya’s hand and thigh.

Rebecca climbed onto the crocodile’s back and beat it with her fists, then drove her fingers into its eyes until it released her friend. She then swam Latoya to the bank, where other children pulled the injured girl out, and doctors later treated her for bite wounds but called them only mild injuries.

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