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Drought-stricken Botswana to kill, eat 20,000 elephants unless Germany takes them — report

Mokgweetsi Masisi pointed out that Botswana was facing its "worst drought in 50 years," causing widespread famine among the people

BERLIN, September 27. /TASS/. President of Botswana Mokgweetsi Masisi says that if the German authorities do not agree to his proposal to accept 20,000 elephants inhabiting the country, they will be fed to Botswana’s starving population, the Bild reported citing a video address by Masisi.

"When people are starving, we must feed them. […] I’m afraid we will have to feed some of those elephants or even all of them to the people," Masisi said.

According to the president, Germany has still not responded to the proposal to accept 20,000 Botswanan elephants, which he made in early April. He pointed out that Botswana was facing its "worst drought in 50 years," causing widespread famine among the people. And the elephants aren’t faring any better, certain to die, the politician added.

Speaking in an interview with Bild earlier in April, Masisi offered to ship 20,000 elephants to Germany in response to the German government’s plans to tighten restrictions on the import of hunting trophies. He suggested that "the Germans should try to live with the animals," since they are forcing the people of Botswana to do just that. According to the BBC, the country has already shipped about 8,000 elephants to Angola and offered hundreds more to Mozambique.

According to the African Wildlife Foundation, about 130,000 elephants, or one-third of all the elephants on Earth, currently reside in Botswana. The Washington Post reported that the animals pose a problem for the country’s agricultural sector, frequently destroying farm crops. Meanwhile, the restrictions on imports of hunting trophies being introduced by a number of Western states, only exacerbate the problem. According to the Humane Society International, Germany was the largest importer of elephant hunt trophies in the EU in 2021.

On September 18, the Associated Press reported that due to the unprecedented drought, in order to keep their populations from starving, the authorities of Namibia and Zimbabwe had decided to shoot elephants and other animals and feed them to their citizens.

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