Monkeys go ape, attack women and children in Sudanese city

KHARTOUM (AFP) - Hordes of monkeys are running wild in the Sudanese state capital Kassala, attacking women and children and looting shops for food.

The groups are going on the rampage in two suburbs of the city, close to the frontier with Eritrea, the Al-Anbaa newspaper reported Thursday.

The monkeys launch "organised attacks which last several hours", targetting "bakeries and grocery stores".

They attack women and children, run into homes, "breaking kitchen utensils and snatching food from the children" and open the doors of refrigerators to get at the food inside, according to one resident, Salah Osman al-Khedr.

He put the phenomenon down to the wholesale cutting down of trees which has deprived the monkeys of their sole source of food. The attacks start at dawn and sometimes last until dusk, he said.