Elephants Harass Omusati Villagers
Oswald Shivute
4 March 2010

From The Namibian

VILLAGERS at Otshikamba village in the Omusati Region have complained about three elephants that are raiding and destroying their fields.

A woman, calling in on NBC Oshiwambo Radio's call-in programme, said: "We haven't slept last night because of the three elephants that came into our village of Otshikamba in the area of Omugulugwombashe and started to eat our mahangu crops, destroy the remaining crops such as pumpkins, watermelons they molested our us and our animals," she said.

When approached, the Councillor of Tsandi Constituency, Leevi Katoma, told The Namibian that the presence of the elephants there is normal, as they live in that area.

"They haven't escaped from the Etosha Pan. They are from that area," Katoma said.

The problem, he said, was that they had only recently started harassing villagers, eating their mahangu and watermelons and destroying property in the process.

Katoma said he would approach Nature Conservation officials at Ruacana to deal with the animals.