A top Brazilian expert on isolated Amazon tribes died seconds after being struck by an arrow evidently shot at him by a war party as he approached an indigenous site.
The BBC reported that 56-year-old Rieli Franciscato, died on Wednesday in a remote region of Rondônia state in north-western Brazil. He was in the area to monitor a tribe as part of his work for the government’s indigenous agency, Funai.
He has been described as an ‘excellent, serious and dedicated professional’.
An NGO co-founded by Franciscato in the 1980s, the Kaninde Ethno-Environmental Defence Association, said the indigenous group would not have been able to distinguish between a friend or a foe from the outside world.
Witnesses said Franciscato and his party, which included police, came under fire as they approached an indigenous group – reportedly just five armed men, described as a war party. Franciscato tried to take cover behind a vehicle, but was struck in the chest by an arrow.
A police officer said: ‘He cried out, pulled the arrow from his chest, ran 50m and collapsed, lifeless.’
Survival International, an indigenous rights group, said Franciscato was called to the area after a number of uncontacted peoples had appeared in recent months.
The group said the attack was ‘almost certainly a response to the immense pressure’ the forest and its peoples were under through mining, farming and logging.
[Picture: Neil Palmer/CIAT, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28394015]