By Femi Akinola
The authorities in Namibia, a country in the Southwest part of Africa, is set to kill about 700 wild animals, including elephants, zebras and hippos, and distribute the meat to the people who are struggling with food insecurity in the country as severe drought troubled millions of people.
The animals listed to be killed include 83 elephants, 30 hippos, 60 buffalo, 50 impala, 100 blue wildbeast and 300 zebras, the nation’s Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism announced earlier in the week.
According to the statement released from the ministry, these animals will come from national parks and communal areas with ”sustainable game numbers” and will be killed by professional hunters. The aim of the programme, the statement stated, is to help alleviate the impacts of drought in the Southwest African country.
The statement further stated that the programme aims to reduce the potentials for conflicts between elephants and human, which can increase during drought when animals searches for food to eat and water to drink. This can bring them into contact with people and the risk of survival for human in such situation is very slim, the ministry noted.
”To this effect, 83 elephants from the identified conflictareas will be killed, and meat will be allocated to the drought relief programme,” the statement says.
Meat from other animals set to be killed will also be distributed among Namibians who are struggling with hunger in the rural areas particularly for people who have been at the receiving end of the worsened drought in the country, the ministry declared adding that 125 animals had already been killed which provided more than 125,000 pounds of meat.
Namibia is one of several countries across southern Africa struggling with worsening drought driven by El Nino – a natural climate pattern which has led to sharp reduction in rainfall in the region, and exacerbted by human caused climate crisis.
A dearth of rain coupled with scorching temperatures has led to shriveled crops and soaring level of hunger for tens of millions of people in the region.
