Namibia’s government will cull several elephants and use their meat to help feed people struggling with food shortages due to the severe drought. Getty Images
Namibia is taking drastic measures to address the severe food shortage caused by its worst drought in a century. The government has announced plans to cull approximately 700 wild animals, including elephants and hippos, to provide meat for its citizens who are struggling with hunger.
The country, which has a population of 2.5 million, is facing unprecedented drought conditions that have devastated food production. Nearly half of Namibia's population is now experiencing food insecurity, and the United Nations recently reported that 84 percent of the nation’s food reserves have been depleted.
To manage this crisis, Namibia's Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism is engaging professional hunters and safari operators to carry out the cull. The operation will take place in areas where animal populations are deemed manageable, including national parks. The ministry stated that this action aligns with its responsibility to use natural resources for the benefit of Namibian citizens.
The Namibian government will hire expert hunters and safari operators to manage the culling of 300 zebras. Getty Images
The cull will target various species, including 83 elephants, 30 hippos, 60 buffaloes, 50 impalas, 100 blue wildebeests, 300 zebras, and 100 elands. This measure is intended to ease the strain on the country’s grazing and water resources, which have been severely impacted by the drought. The Namibian government has already distributed nearly 57,000 kilograms of game meat from 157 animals as part of its relief efforts, though specific details on the species involved were not provided.
The elephants selected for culling are from areas where human-wildlife conflicts are prevalent. These conflicts often lead to damage to crops, loss of livestock, and threats to property and human safety. The ministry has noted that these issues have intensified with the ongoing drought.
Elephants in Namibia's Etosha National Park, shown here from May 2015, were nearly driven to extinction in Southern Africa due to hunting, but conservation efforts have helped their numbers bounce back. Getty Images
Namibia, which is part of southern Africa’s extensive elephant conservation area, is home to one of the world's largest elephant populations. The region, which includes Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Angola, and Namibia, hosts over 200,000 elephants. Although elephant populations had previously been near extinction due to hunting, conservation efforts have helped their numbers rebound significantly.
The current drought has been exacerbated by the recent El Niño phenomenon, which has drastically reduced rainfall across southern Africa. The World Weather Attribution group has identified El Niño as a major factor driving the severe drought, which has left much of the region with less than 20 percent of its usual rainfall at the beginning of the year.
This drought is part of a broader pattern of increasing aridity in southern Africa, which is partly attributed to climate change. Namibia, already one of the driest countries in sub-Saharan Africa, faces heightened vulnerability due to its dependence on rain-fed agriculture and livestock.
