A further check was needed regarding the date of the news, to ensure it pertains to 2024 and not some obscure earlier decades. A time when Africa’s wild animals, not just those in Namibia, had no protection whatsoever and fell prey to the whims of poachers, literally being decimated.
How does one react, then, to the official announcement from the government of Namibia that it intends to kill 723 wild animals from its wildlife (ranging from elephants and zebras to impala deer) to provide meat for its residents and alleviate their suffering from the ongoing drought?
Namibia, a vast but sparsely populated country in South-western Africa (with fewer than 3 million residents), is experiencing its worst drought in a century. Of course, most of the country is covered by deserts (Namib and Kalahari), yet even the supposedly fertile areas have been severely affected by the lack of water, crops have failed, and more than half of its population is facing the specter of hunger.
The announcement notably states that this extreme measure is “in accordance with our constitutional mandate where our natural resources are used for the benefit of Namibia’s citizens.” A large part of the southern tip of Africa is affected by drought, impacting over 30 million people across the region.
El Niño strikes Namibia
Droughts are common in Southern Africa, and the region has experienced several over the past decade, including from 2018 to 2021. This is largely due to the now well-known El Niño, a natural climate pattern often associated with warmer and drier weather in parts of the world. It returned last year and led to record droughts, with some areas receiving less than half of their annual rainfall.
Besides the 83 elephants, the country also plans to slaughter 300 zebras, 30 hippopotamuses, 50 deer, 60 buffaloes, and 100 elands (a type of antelope).
The animals are not only being killed for their meat. Namibia is also trying to minimize dangerous encounters with humans, which, according to the ministerial announcement, are expected to increase during the drought as animals and people search for water and plants.
Elephants, of course, are herbivorous animals but can also become particularly lethal. They were responsible for the deaths of at least 50 people just in 2023 in neighboring Zimbabwe.
The situation is extremely concerning. Last week, a United Nations representative stated that 84% of Namibia’s food resources have already been depleted. The American aid agency announced an additional $4.9 million in humanitarian assistance last month but also emphasized that September is likely to be the peak of the drought period when food is scarce.
So far, at least 157 animals have been killed, and the ministry announced that they have produced about 63 tons of meat, which is expected to relieve around 1.4 million people. The hunting will focus on areas where the animals consume the most water and grazing resources. Elephants can grow over 4 meters tall and weigh more than 5.5 tons, consuming a particularly large amount of these resources. They can eat, on average, about 300 kilograms of vegetation per day.
In any case, the environment for wildlife is under strain. The extreme drought killed at least 160 elephants in Zimbabwe’s largest national park in January and 300 elephants in Botswana in 2023 alone. The WWF program for Namibia is working to raise funds to provide water for elephants and other species in various national parks.
The big issue is species conservation in Namibia and in four other Southern African countries. The population of savanna elephants has decreased by more than half over the last three generations. However, in this refuge over the past few years, the elephant population has generally remained stable, at over 227,000 elephants, according to a 2022 survey.