Namibia sent hundreds of soldiers as part of the efforts to contain forest fires that burned about one third of the territory of one of Africa’s largest hunting reserves.
The fires began on September 22 in the southwest of ENP (Etosha National Park), according to a statement from the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Tourism, published on Saturday (27).
According to the ministry, it is estimated that 775,163 hectares of the park have been burned, equivalent to 34% of its total area, with another 171,098 hectares of land outside the park also affected.
“Ecological damage within ENP are extensive,” the ministry said in the statement, adding that the fires began “due to suspicions of coal production activities on neighboring commercial farms.”
In a separate statement published on Sunday on Facebook, Namibia’s interim president’s office, Lucia Witbooi, said 540 soldiers were mobilized to help fight the fires along with helicopters.
“The fire represents a significant threat to biodiversity, wildlife and the subsistence means of communities in the affected areas,” he said, adding that an unknown number of animals were killed, but there were no reports of human victims.
“Strong winds and dry vegetation contribute to the rapid spread of fire,” says the statement, who adds that authorities “continue to mobilize resources to reinforce ongoing efforts to allow teams on the ground to extinguish fire.”
On the morning of Monday (29), local time, Namibia Prime Minister Elijah Ngurare Manongo said in an X publication that there were still fires inside and outside the park, but they had all been contained.
“When there is teamwork, there is no challenge that we cannot overcome,” said Manongo in a separate post.
Update by the Honorable Minister of MEFT as per Mop-up Morning of 29 Sep 2025: Joined Briefing at NDF Tactical Comand Okaukuejo MEFT / NDF
Active Fires Reported inside Etosha:
Valid
End -post
Lovely-aka-Elda corridor with e enp
Ombour
Ohaiha-DorslandAll fires contained /…
– Eliejah Drama Points (@shore)
It is a great tourist attraction that attracts about 200,000 visitors a year, according to the Ministry of Tourism of Namibia.
It is the home of 114 species of mammals, including elephants, lions, giraffes and black rhinos, critically endangered species, as well as 340 bird species.
The park also houses a saline that covers 4,730 square kilometers – so large that it is visible from space.
According to NASA, lightning fires used to occur in the park’s savannas and forests about once a decade before firefighters began to extinguish forest fires aggressively.
So a growing set of scientific evidence suggested that occasional burning is essential to maintaining a healthy ecosystem in the park, leading the park staff to implement a preventive burning system.
This was created to avoid devastating forest fires such as those that occurred in 2011, when dozens of animals died in fires that burned 370,000 hectares of the park.
