Woman tells of how she tried to fight off lion with her fists after it attacked her husband

A heroic wife who tried to fight off a starving lioness that was attacking her husband has opened up about her terrifying ordeal.

Philanthropist Bernd Kebbel, 59, who made large donations towards saving the desert lions of Namibia, was attacked and killed by one while camping in their territory.

Businessman killed by lion in Namibia

Father-of-two, Kebbel had climbed down a ladder from his tent, which was mounted on top of his 4×4, to go to the toilet in the early hours of 30 May. It was at this moment that he was grabbed by the predator.

The lioness called Charlie — the star of the award-winning documentary Lions of the Skeleton Coast, released last year at the Cannes Film Festival — was lying in wait for him.

The 12-year-old lioness was on her last legs, skeletal and starving, according to photos taken just weeks before, which showed she had not killed to feed for a long time.

Her natural fear of human beings was overcome by hunger, and she crept into the camp, which wealthy businessman Kebbel, and wife Conny and friends had pitched earlier.

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Conny became aware of the attack when she heard the roar of the lion and the cries of her husband as the lion pounced and grabbed him by the neck.

Close friend of the couple and wildlife photographer Dirk Heinrich, who has snapped Charlie many times, told Conny’s shocking story in her own words on his Facebook page.

He spoke after game rangers followed the lion’s tracks and were forced to shoot it dead. The animal had also attacked other campers nearby.

The brave widow said neither she nor Bernd would have wanted the lion shot, despite the fact that she had to fight it as it killed her husband.

“We are not angry. We have found peace. We did not want Charlie to die. It happened at a place we and Bernd loved,” said Conny, with both her children by her side.

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“We parked the vehicles in a U-formation with a view of some mustard bushes on the open side because it was windy. After dinner, everybody went to sleep in the roof tents.

“At around 1.30am Bernd said he will go down because he needed to go to the toilet. He opened the zip of the roof tent, and as he climbed down the ladder, I heard a sound.

“It was as if he was surprised, and then a lion growling. I looked out of the tent and saw a lioness had grabbed Bernd by his head,” she said.

Wife hit lion’s face to try save her husband

Conny rushed down and screamed at the lioness, and started hitting the big cat on the face. She also tried to pull on the satellite collar around the lion’s neck to get it away from her husband.

“She screamed for help, and one of the men came and hit the predator on the head with a small torch, and eventually the lion did let go and disappeared behind the bushes,” added Heinrich.

“Conny and the others immediately realised that all help for Bernd came too late. The lioness then continued to mock-charge the group, coming in from different directions.”

“Everybody fled into the cars because Charlie was posing a threat to us all,” said Conny.

Conny hailed for her bravery

A lion expert, who has known Bernd and Conny for more than 10 years, hailed her amazing bravery in taking on the lion alone and unarmed.

The tour guide who leads expeditions in the Namibian deserts said: “Conny has become part of folklore; who in their right mind takes on a lioness and lives?

“It is all anyone is talking about around the bushfires at night.

“She was said to have been screaming at it like a dervish, and grabbed its leather collar and was physically hauling this thing more than twice her weight off Bernd.

“Her screams carried to the two other tents, and another man bravely joined her in taking on the lioness armed only with a torch and battered it over the head.

“The lioness was shocked at being attacked and retreated, but not far, and tried to get back to her ‘kill’ a number of times, but was driven back each time it came.

“The only thing they could do was get Bernd aboard a vehicle and away from there.”

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They then took two of the three vehicles and drove to the nearby Hoanib Skeleton Coast Lodge, where they asked the staff to contact the police at the nearest town, Sesfontein.

They and nature conservation officials arrived at 7.30am and were joined by renowned lion expert Dr Philip “Flip” Stander, who had narrated the award-winning film about Charlie.

Stander said he was in the area ironically to find Charlie himself as her satellite collar had stopped working and needed replacing, when he heard his close friend Bernd was dead.

Another group attacked by same lion

He accompanied officials and police to the site where the lion had attacked and saw that she had returned and had chewed up clothing and equipment left behind.

The following night, Charlie attacked another group nearby. They posted a video on social media of the damage it caused to their tents as it tried to slash and bite its way inside.

They also got video of the lion up on the hillside looking down at them, just a few hours before the game rangers caught up with her and shot her dead.

Lion was famous for her survival skills

Charlie was part of the three “famous” orphan cub sisters of the Skeleton Coast who starred in an award-winning documentary on their incredible survival.

Alpha, Bravo and Charlie were born in 2014 then lost their mother to a leopard attack in 2015 at 10 months old. The young lions were given no hope of survival.

Stander, out of professional curiosity, studied them and was amazed at how they taught themselves to hunt and survive in such a hostile desert.

Charlie moved inland alone and became a unique hunter, able to take down giraffes on her own. She had two sets of cubs but lost them all to the savage environment.

This year, with plentiful desert rains, her prey became stronger and moved away from waterholes and near-empty riverbeds, making hunting difficult.

She struggled to catch wildlife and became progressively weaker.

An extremely emaciated photo of starving Charlie was posted on Facebook weeks before she attacked Bernd showing her as “skin and bone” and her collar hanging off her.

Then, on 30 May, she attacked and killed Bernd, who had ironically devoted much of his life and money to protect the Namibian desert lions.

Charlie was one of only 80 or so desert lions left in the remote 20 000 square kilometre regions of north-west Namibia.

Namibia has about 800 desert lions left, with half in the National Park at Etosha and the rest scattered across one of the world’s most inhospitable areas.

Officials of the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism shot Charlie dead on mid-morning on Sunday, 1 June, as she took a break under a bush from the relentless sun.

A spokesman said: “The animal had become habituated and used to humans and was posing an ongoing threat to community members and tourists, so a difficult decision was made.”

German-born Bernd made his life in Namibia and became a wealthy businessman through his company Off-Road-Centre, in the capital of Windhoek, selling safari vehicles.

He also sold accessories for travelling in the wild and supported the Desert Lion Project with donations and fitting out their research vehicles.

He leaves his wife Conny and a son and daughter, Dieter and Heidi, both in their twenties.

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