Seronga — Botswana will donate 8 000 elephants to Angola as part of efforts to reduce their numbers in the country.

President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi revealed this during a handover of Elephant Express minibus project in Seronga on October 22. The project is aimed at assisting communities in the Eastern side of Okavango to pass through elephant corridors safely.

Dr Masisi said Botswana had the highest population of elephants in the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA), which spanned across five southern African countries of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Botswana, he said, had about 131 909 out of 277 900 of the KAZA elephant population.

Dr Masisi therefore said government had taken a decision to curb the challenge of human-wildlife conflict in the country by gifting Angola some of the elephants.

"Angola has the biggest KAZA secured place. It is important to Botswana and the lifeline of the Okavango Delta as the water originates there," he said.

Dr Masisi said he had already reached an agreement with his Angola counterpart to donate the elephants and the two governments were yet to strategise on how to undertake the exercise. Dr Masisi said relocating the elephants to another country would help reduce their population without killing them.

He said Botswana's highest elephant population was due to relocation of elephants from some KAZA countries during the time when they were marred by conflicts, which negatively affected animals.

The President said Botswana had conservation policies in place and had reserved land, which favoured protection of elephants.

BOPA