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Oshikoto police regional commander Commissioner Teopolina Kalompo-Nashikaku has issued a stern warning to poachers, saying they risk their lives by engaging with armed anti-poaching units. Without mincing her words, she warned that the authorities are committed to protecting the country’s fauna and flora and said poachers risk their own lives if they shoot at security personnel deployed to safeguard wildlife species.

Oshikoto police regional commander Commissioner Teopolina Kalompo-Nashikaku has issued a stern warning to poachers, saying they risk their lives by engaging with armed anti-poaching units. Without mincing her words, she warned that the authorities are committed to protecting the country's fauna and flora and said poachers risk their own lives if they shoot at security personnel deployed to safeguard wildlife species.

Two teachers and five other people from Muanza district in Sofala province, including a smallholder and a public administration technician, were arrested this weekend while trying to sell two elephant tusks and the skin of a leopard for 44,000 meticais (24,000 for the tusks and 20,000 for leopard skin).

Namibia has lost 17 rhinos and two elephants to poaching since the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism said Tuesday.

The Hanoi People’s Court sentenced a man to five years in prison on Monday for trafficking rhino horns from Angola to Vietnam. Nguyen Van Pho, 31, was charged with "illegally transporting rare and endangered animals" after arriving in Noi Bai International Airport from Bangkok on November 7, 2019, with the horns. When airport security personnel checked his baggage, they found a package wrapped in tin foil with two black rhino horns which weighed 1.9kg inside.

The poaching of rhinos and elephants in Namibia is not a crisis because only about 1,2% are poached per year, said environment minister Pohamba Shifeta.

Police inspector general Sebastian Ndeitunga yesterday said he will take stiff measures on officers who were on duty at Hosea Kutako International Airport when the Chinese national smuggled 18 rhino horns out of Namibia.

Deputy minister of environment Tommy Nambahu has repeated his stance that the release of suspected rhino poachers is hampering the ministry's efforts to fight the scourge.

The Ministry of Environment and Tourism projects to have spent over a billion dollars in anti-poaching operations by the end of this year since the operation started two years ago.

Four more rhino carcasses were found at Grootberg Lodge in Kunene region in late December last year.

Environment minister Pohamba Shifeta says he is not aware of any ministers or former members of parliament involved in poaching. Meanwhile, police Inspector General Sebastian Ndeitunga says he cannot deny that ministers or members of parliament were involved in poaching, but he wanted to know who they are so he can lay his hands on them. The minister and the police chief were reacting to reports in the Namibian Sun that NamRights executive director Phil ya Nangoloh had allegedly submitted a report to Ndeitunga in which political leaders are accused of involvement in…

The Tourism minister has accused some traditional leaders and businesspeople of being used as middlemen by poaching syndicates.

In a move to control rhino poaching, the Ministry of Environment and Tourism started constructing a proper boundary fence to protect animals in the Etosha National Park. The fencing is expected to cost an estimated N$700 000 per kilometre. Etosha measures 824 kilometres, and the ministry would need about N$576 million to fence it all. The ministry, however, does not have enough funds for the project and has requested an additional N$167 million during this financial year. It was allocated about N$643 million in the 2015/2016 national budget.

Poachers should be ashamed of themselves for killing innocent animals, said deputy minister of environment and tourism Tommy Nambahu. Just a week ago, Nambahu explained that the ministry was aware that local people are being used in the poaching of elephants and rhinos. "Shame on them for doing what they are doing to innocent animals. I have never heard of a rhino destroying a mahangu field or killing anyone. Why must it be killed because someone wants its parts?" he asked.