Heroic Lions

Lions Res­cue, Guard Beat­en Ethiopi­an Girl
Edit: That sto­ry is gone, but this one is still there: Ethiopi­an girl report­ed­ly guard­ed by lions

A 12-year-old girl who was abduct­ed and beat­en by men try­ing to force her into a mar­riage was found being guard­ed by three lions who appar­ent­ly had chased off her cap­tors, a police­man said Tuesday.

The girl, miss­ing for a week, had been tak­en by sev­en men who want­ed to force her to mar­ry one of them, said Sgt. Wondimu Weda­jo, speak­ing by tele­phone from the provin­cial cap­i­tal of Bita Genet, about 350 miles south­west of Addis Ababa.

She was beat­en repeat­ed­ly before she was found June 9 by police and rel­a­tives on the out­skirts of Bita Genet, Wondimu said. She had been guard­ed by the lions for about half a day, he said.

“They stood guard until we found her and then they just left her like a gift and went back into the for­est,” Wondimu said.

“If the lions had not come to her res­cue, then it could have been much worse. Often these young girls are raped and severe­ly beat­en to force them to accept the mar­riage,” he said.

‘Some kind of miracle’
Tilahun Kas­sa, a local gov­ern­ment offi­cial who cor­rob­o­rat­ed Wondimu’s ver­sion of the events, said one of the men had want­ed to mar­ry the girl against her wishes.

“Every­one thinks this is some kind of mir­a­cle, because nor­mal­ly the lions would attack peo­ple,” Wondimu said.

Cur­rent Mood: 🙂impressed
Cyn is Rick's wife, Katie's Mom, and Esther & Oliver's Mémé. She's also a professional geek, avid reader, fledgling coder, enthusiastic gamer (TTRPGs), occasional singer, and devoted stitcher.
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