American Tourist Dies in Bwindi After Wasp Attack

A 65-year-old American female tourist has died in Rubanda district after she was attacked by wasps, Police have said.

Gloria Suemiller, a U.S citizen from Oklahoma was on tour in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest national park when the unfortunate incident occurred.

According to the Police spokesperson for Kigezi Region, Elly Matte, the tourist died on Thursday morning at around 10:30pm at Katonvi, Ruhija zone in Bwindi National park Rubanda district.

She and other tourists are said to have been in Bwindi to track gorillas.

“The victim plus seven others including the husband, a one White Gary Lynn 74 years came from Kigali, Rwanda last evening and slept at Ruhija sector,” Matte said in a statement released on Thursday evening.

This morning, they decided to go to the park and the victim was leading the group which was also accompanied by tour guides. Suddenly, she was attacked by a group of wasps.

“The wasps just attacked her at once in big numbers to death as the rest escaped unhurt,” Matte stated.

He says Police was notified, visited the scene with the Police surgeon for postmortem and the case has been filed at Ruhija police post vide SD 06/24/05/2018.

“This is something beyond our control. It is very unfortunate and bad. We don’t know what could have caused these wasps to become wild, because with the guides, they must have used the usual routes,” Matte said.