Fiji: 11-year-old drowns uncle with fishing nets

A young Fijian girl drowned while fishing in the Wainibuka River north of Suva last week.

Kelera Marama, 11, had accompanied her uncle, Inia Suka, and two cousins to place fishing nets in the river.

Suka told the Fiji Times how he had tried to save his niece.

“While I was still placing the net I heard Kelera calling out my name. She called me twice and I knew straight away that there was a problem. So, I left the bamboo raft I was in and the net and swam to where they were but it was too late. I tried to revive her but could not.”

“She was learning to swim and would always follow us to the river to get fish for our family’s meals or for us to sell,” Suka said.

Suka said at first he could not find Marama’s body but when he pulled up the fishing net she and her cousin had been using, he found Marama’s body trapped in it. One of the cousins said he tried to grab hold of Marama’s hand but she slipped away too fast.

“She was a bit far from us, and we couldn’t do anything because she was also heavier than us.”

He said before they headed down to the river, Marama was packing her stuff in preparation for the first day of the new school term.