Renowned for its aptitude with tools, a chimpanzee ripped a baby girl from her mother's arms and carried her into the forest where they killed her and collected her organs.
Seny Zogba was working in a cassava field in Bossou, in Guinea, when a chimp sunk his teeth into her and stole her eight-month-old baby, named as Yoh Hélène.
The battered body of the young child was discovered three kilometers from the Nimba Mountains Nature Reserve.
Witnesses fear the chimp used his tools to main the girl as they claim the infant had been eviscerated.
Chimpanzee chief researcher Gen Yamakoshi horrifyingly revealed to The Times that the reason for the horrific homicide was that the chimps "no longer fear humans."
An enraged crowd carried the baby's body to the Bossou Environmental Research Institute, where experts have been studying the extraordinary animal population for decades, and vented their wrath at them.
They then ransacked the building, destroying and setting fire to equipment including drones, computers and over 200 documents, the centre's managers said.
A teenage Bossou group member named Joseph Doré stated: "The way she was kil''led is what infuriated the population."
The decreasing amount of food in the reserve is forcing the animals to exit the protected area more frequently, which raises the risk of assaults, according to local biologist Alidjiou Sylla.
Since the year's beginning, the research center reported that it has counted six instances of chimpanzee attacks on humans within the reserve.
Moussa Koya, another youth leader, said "It was not their will [to be violent] but it has become the habit of the chimpanzees."
Mr. Yamakoshi stated that it was unclear if the assaults were brought on by "excitement" or food.
"It is similar behaviour to how chimps treat one another," he said. "If they are excited they cannot control their behaviour."
In 2022, the oldest member of a chimpanzee tribe, Fana, died in solitude age 71, leaving behind two sons, Foaf and Fanwa.
The tiny community of apes use stone hammers and anvils to crack open nuts - the most sophisticated act ever observed of humanity's genetically closest relative.
Though they coexist in the wild, the great apes share the land and its resources with the villagers, who look out for them since they think they are reincarnated ancestors.
Because chimpanzees are revered in Guinea and customarily get food gifts, some of them choose to leave the protected region and enter human villages, where they occasionally launch attacks.
However, Bossou elder Michael Gamada Koïba said locals now don't know "what kind of chimpanzees they are" after the fatality.