NAMIBIA (Syllabus: GS Paper 2 – Places in News)

Context: Namibia plans to cull hundreds of its most majestic wild animals, including dozens of elephants and hippopotamuses, to provide meat for its 1.4 million people nearly half the southern African nation’s population who are reeling under the worst drought in a century.

Namibia

• About: It is located on the southwestern coast of Africa. 
• Bordered by: Angola to the north, Zambia to the northeast, Botswana to the east, South Africa to the southeast and south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. 

oIt ranges from arid in the north to desert on the coast and in the east.

• Rivers: Kunene (Cunene), the Okavango (Cubango), the Mashi (Kwando), and the Zambezi on the northern border and the Orange on the southern.
• Caprivi Strip: Namibia has a long, narrow eastern extension (the Caprivi Strip) based on a German misconception that access to the Zambezi—despite the Victoria Falls—meant access to the Indian Ocean.
• Drought in Namibia: The drought began in Botswana in October 2023, spread and intensified across Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Namibia, and affects most of southern Africa today, according to a report by the European Commission.
• Namibia had declared national emergencies because of extreme droughts in 2013, 2016 and 2019.