Namibia: Amidst severe drought and scarcity, Namibia plans to kill and butcher elephants in the country in a bid to solve their hunger crisis that has affected around half of their population, which is nearly 1.4 million people.
Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism of Namibia released an official statement and according to the ministry, the African nation’s strategy involves killing 723 wild animals, consisting of 83 elephants, as a necessary means which is “in line with the constitutional mandate, where the natural resources are used for the benefit of the citizens of Namibia only.”
Director of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Africa Office – Rose Mwebaza said that the well-managed and especially the sustainable harvesting of healthy wild animal populations can be a very precious source of food for tribal communities.
Reportedly, South Africa has been dealing with drought, along with more than 30 million people across the region who are affected, as per the UN World Food Program in June.
Spokesperson for the US Agency for International Development – Benjamin Suarato said that the drought is a common phenomenon in the region, especially that are frequent from 2018 to 2021.
Currently, the drought is plaguing Southern Africa which is far more widespread and devastating than ever before.
Country Director of the World Wildlife Fund in Namibia – Juliane Zeidler said that there is no food for people and there is no food for animals, available.
US Agency spokesperson Suarato believes that one of the major causes of this year’s severe drought is El Niño, which is a naturally occurring climate pattern, that is associated with warmer and drier weather in parts of the world.
The return of this climate pattern has led to a “record-breaking drought with some parts of the region receiving less than half of the annual rainfall,” said Suarato.
The drought in Namibia has dried out all the staple crops. This has also become a reason to kill the livestock. It has forced them to look for wild animals as their next source of food.
Apart from elephants, 300 zebras, 30 hippos, 50 impalas, 60 buffaloes, 100 blue wildebeest and 100 elands will also be butchered, for food.
While meat is one reason, the another reason for killing animals is to reduce the dangerous encounters, that happen with humans. It is being anticipated that, this can become more frequent as humans and animals both compete for water and food.