Starving Zimbabweans descend upon and strip an elephant carcass bare 24 hours after they found it. Using machetes, axes and knives made from tin cans they set upon the six-ton carcass.

It took just one hour and 47 minutes for the 13ft-tall elephant to be reduced to a skeleton. Every part was used for food, even the trunk and ears.

The bones of the 70-year-old animal were taken to boil for soup and within 24 hours nothing was left but a blood-stained patch of earth.

It was in the middle of nowhere, but within 15 minutes hundreds of people had arrived from all directions. The women formed a ring around the elephant and the men stood inside, fighting and stabbing each other to get to the meat.

The images are undeniably shocking. But they illustrate the terrible lengths to which Zimbabweans are forced to go just to survive under Robert Mugabe.



Fallen giant: The corpse of the bull elephant lies undisturbed in deep scrubland in Gonarezhou National Park


The desperate descend: Within minutes, starving villagers arrive at the carcass


Battle begins: Soon, the villagers are fighting to get the urgently-needed meat


Audience: People gather on a hill a short distance away to watch village men get to work


Brutally effective: Nothing goes to waste, with the skin, trunk and ears all removed


Starving: Zimbabweans grapple with each other as they set upon the elephant to get meat

Stripped: After less than two hours, only bones remain. Even these will later be taken


Desperate: A blood-spattered villager


the spot where the bull elephant lay is completely cleared just 24 hours after it was found


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