A Friendship resident lost his life on Saturday after being stung by Africanised bees while clearing a patch of land on his farm in the Friendship Backlands, East Bank Demerara.
Dead is 50-year-old Abdul Hamied of Lot 6 Public Road Friendship.
The man’s nephew Shameer Haniff told Stabroek News yesterday that around 1pm on Saturday, Hamied, his son Tariq and some labourers were clearing a piece of land with a chain saw.
Haniff said the group of men soon came under attack when they disturbed a beehive and they managed to jump into a nearby trench. Hamied because of his age was not able to get to the water in a timely manner, he said, and was stung all over his body.
Haniff told this newspaper that his uncle planted cash crops on a large scale and had several citrus trees on his farm.
Following the attack, he said, the other men managed to bring the badly stung Hamied out of the backlands and later took him to a private hospital in the city. However, he subsequently died as a result of the stings he received.
Haniff told Stabroek News that he called the Ministry of Agriculture yesterday to have the hive removed.
However he was told that contact would be made with the family since there was no one available to remove the hive.
On November 30 last year about 30 residents including Keith Massiah and 13-year-old Travis October were stung when a hive on Hadfield Street with about 200,000 Africanised bees was disturbed.
Two dogs that were badly stung died as a result of the attack.
