Maputo - Two women were devoured by lions in northern Mozambique, bringing to at least 14 the number of people thus killed in Cabo Delgado province over the past six months, Radio Mozambique reported Tuesday.

The women's bodies were discovered at the weekend near Quirimba National Park, where attacks by wild animals on humans are frequent, the report said.

The rising number of attacks has been put down to the tussle between humans and animals over shared resources, namely water and pastures.

Farmers, particularly, are at risk of attack by lions, crocodiles or elephants when they venture into isolated areas to work the land.

To defuse the man-animal conflict, Mozambique's authorities have boosted the monitoring of wild animals in conservation areas.

Among the new measures aimed at protecting rural-dwellers mobile brigades have been established to drive away animals from populated areas or to kill those animals that pose a threat to humans. (dpa)