March 25 2008 at 12:19PM

Maputo - The Mozambican government is training a special unit of professional hunters who will be tasked with killing problem animals.

Agriculture minister Soares Nhaca told Radio Mozambique in a programme broadcast on Monday night that the professional hunters would be licensed to kill problem animals as a way of alleviating human-animal conflict.

"All identified problem animals will have to be killed because as government we prioritise the life of people more than that of animals," he told the station.

Nhaca said since January 2008 at least 17 people had been killed by crocodiles alone.

Cases of human-animal conflict were mostly reported in the northern and central provinces where the government has also implemented intervention programmes such as collection of crocodile eggs. - Sapa