Amazon: Brazilian official killed by arrow near indigenous tribe

An eagle of a Brazilian expert from different Amazon tribes was struck in the chest by her when she reached the indigenous place.

Riley Francisco, 56, died Wednesday in a remote area of ​​the state of Rondenia in northwestern Brazil.

He was in the area to inspect a species as part of work for the government’s indigenous agency, Fanai.

Witnesses said Mr Francisco and his party came under fire when they approached an indigenous group.

Mr Francisco, who was with police, tried to take refuge in the back of the vehicle, but was struck in the chest with an arrow, witnesses said.

A police officer who witnessed the incident said Mr Francisco shot the arrow, which struck him in the heart.

The officer shouted, pulled an arrow from his chest, ran m0m (164 ft) and fell to the ground, the officer said in an audio dio recording posted on social media.

The area’s photojournalist Gabriel Uchida told the AFP news agency that Mr Francisco was trying to observe a species known as the “Catario River Isolated Group”.

Mr Uchida, who also witnessed the incident, said the tribe was usually a “peaceful group”, but “this time, there were only five armed men – a war party”.

Indigenous groups in the Amazon and elsewhere in the world have been known to respond violently to outsiders on their soil.

The Kanind Ethno-Environmental Defense Association, an NGO led by Minister Francisco in the 1980s, stated that indigenous groups did not have the ability to distinguish between friend and foe from the outside world.

Indigenous leaders say that since Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro promised development of the Amazon region in 2019, the incidence of loggers on the land of illegal miners, farmers and their ancestors has become more common.

Conservationists blame Mr. Bolsonaro and his government for defaming agencies, including Funai and the environmental enforcement agency Ibama, and for turning a deaf ear to farmers and lagers clearing land in the Amazon, for deforestation too soon.

But Mr. Bolsonaro has long questioned the need for large indigenous reservations in rainforests and defended the development of the Amazon by opening up protected areas for farming and mining.

At Funai E, Mr. Francisco led a program to rescue different indigenous groups.

“Riley dedicated his life to indigenous purposes. He had more than three decades of service and he leaves a great legacy to protect these people,” said Ricardo Lopez Dias, a Finnish official.