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Famine in Namibia: There is a severe drought in the South African country Namibia. The grain production has fallen. Namibia has never faced such a drought in the last 100 years. People in this country have run out of grain. Government grain warehouses have also become empty. Meanwhile, the government has ordered the killing of 700 animals including elephants, zebras and sea horses. Last month, the United Nations said that half of Namibia's population is suffering from hunger.
Namibia's Environment Ministry announced on Monday that 723 animals would be slaughtered and their meat distributed in drought-affected areas. Meat is also being distributed for relief in drought-affected areas due to grain shortage. The ministry said the animals slaughtered included 30 hippos, 60 buffaloes, 50 impalas, 100 blue wildebeests, 300 zebras, 83 elephants and 100 other animals.
Only professional hunters will go on safari and hunt these animals. So far 157 animals have been hunted in Mangeti. 20 animals have been poached in Mahango National Park, 70 in Kwando, 6 in Buffalo, 9 in Mudumo. 68 lakh people in South Africa are affected by drought due to El Niño. The effect of drought started in early 2024. After that the crops were destroyed and gradually there was a shortage of grains. According to the Southern African Development Community, 16 countries are affected by drought.
Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi have already declared food crisis. Animals say that the danger may increase due to El Niño. The Namibian government says that killing animals will provide food to people. Apart from this, by reducing their numbers, the effect of drought on wild animals will also be reduced. Animals are killing each other for water at many places.
Experts say that if resources are not provided to animals, they will move to human settlements and harm people. There is a need to reduce the number of elephants to fight famine. Seeing the famine situation, the United Nations should also come forward to help. Australia also allowed the killing of kangaroos to fight the famine.
In the process of culling, already weakened animals are killed. Professional hunters are contracted for this. The meat that the government gets from this is used to fight famine. Many countries in Africa have large numbers of elephants. Namibia has a population of about 2.3 million people. People depend on hunting and agriculture. Due to lack of timely rainfall, food crisis often arises.