Zimbabwe Govt Approves Killing Of 200 Elephants To Feed Hungry Citizens

The government of Zimbabwe has approved the killing of 200 Elephants to serve as food for hungry citizens as part of efforts to combat the lingering food insecurity caused by severe drought in the East African country.

Apart from serving as food for hungry citizens, the government of Zimbabwe added that the killing of the Elephants would also serve as a way of controlling the havoc caused by the animals in killing residents of the country.

A spokesperson for the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority, Tinashe Farawo, confirmed the development to CNN on Monday.

“We are targeting to cull 200 elephants,” Farawo said.

He added: “The animals are causing a lot of havoc in communities, killing people. Last week, we lost a woman in the northern part of the country who was killed by an elephant. The previous week, the same thing happened. So it (the culling) is also a way of controlling.”

Not less than 30 persons have been killed in different wildlife-human conflicts in Zimbabwe this year, according to local reports in the country.

Farawo was said to have added, according to Reuters, that the culling is also part of the country’s efforts to decongest its parks, which can only sustain 55,000 elephants. Zimbabwe is home to over 84,000 elephants.

“It’s an effort to decongest the parks in the face of drought. The numbers are just a drop in the ocean because we are talking of 200 (elephants) and we are sitting on plus 84,000, which is big,” he said.

According to United Nations figures, over seven million people are at risk of acute hunger in Zimbabwe. This made the UN declare the country as “one of the hunger hotspots.”

In a statement in early August, UN said: “A new report from the UN aid coordination office (OCHA) reveals that food insecurity levels in Zimbabwe are rapidly deteriorating after it was hit with historic droughts due to the El Niño weather pattern.”

Zimbabwe’s planned culling of elephants comes weeks after the Namibian government adopted the same measure to tackle potential food insecurity and potential wildlife-human conflict as drought bites harder.