Africa-Press – Namibia. BOTSWANA Defence Force (BDF) members have again been accused of intimidating locals along the Namibian side of the Chobe River in two separate incidents in January.
Speaking to The Namibian last week, a farmer at Ivilivinzi village in the Kabbe South constituency, Mbeha Sikabongo, said his cattle herder had a run-in with two heavily armed BDF soldiers on 24 January.
He said the two soldiers allegedly crossed the Chobe River using a small aluminum canoe at an ungazzetted point and entered Namibia.
“They found my cattle herder on the Namibian side of the Chobe River and started interrogating him as to what he was doing there and where he was staying.
“Afterwards, they drove a lone elephant back to Botswana. This incident really frightened my worker, and I am worried about his well-being. Imagine the BDF crossing over and questioning him as if he were on Botswana soil,” Sikabango said.
In the other incident, which took place on 18 January, four armed BDF members were captured on video by Zambezi Queen luxury houseboat employees following them on the Namibian side of the Chobe River.
The employees, who prefer to remain anonymous, said the BDF boat followed them for about seven minutes and only turned back when they entered the river’s main channel.
“We were on the Namibian side the whole time. Our guests even got worried as to why soldiers were following us,” they said.
Namibian Lives Matter Movement’s national chairperson, Sinvula Mudabeti, says BDF soldiers are not only intimidating locals, but also tourists, making them feel unsafe while visiting Namibia.
“This is going to cripple our tourism sector because it is an act of economic sabotage by the BDF in broad daylight. We condemn these acts of intimidation and harassment by the BDF and call on our government to take this matter seriously before local residents take it upon themselves to defend their lives and means of livelihood,” he says.
Mudabeti asks why the Namibian Police are not investigating the illegal entry of BDF soldiers at ungazetted points of entry, but are reducing it to a matter of non-significance.
“We shall never allow Botswana to continue with its acts of aggression unabated. At the appointed time, we shall mobilise residents of the Zambezi region to find alternative means to protect their land and lives,” he says.
Mudabeti says president Hage Geingob as chairperson of the Southern African Development Community Organ on Politics, Defence, and Security Cooperation, is vocal on issues causing instability in other countries, but fails to address issues in the Zambezi region.
“Botswana is actively causing instability in Namibia by crossing the Chobe River at will and driving animals back to Botswana. We wonder if international law does not apply to the acts of war the BDF is perpetuating against residents of the Zambezi region.
“Acts of selective morality by our president will soon work against his public pronouncements on acts of war elsewhere, as he is unable to speak out against the same in Namibia,” he says.
Zambezi regional governor Lawrence Sampofu declined to comment on the matter.
Efforts to get a comment from minister of international relations and cooperation Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah were unsuccessful.
She failed to answer questions sent to her yesterday.
Zambezi regional police commander commissioner Andreas Shilelo also failed to provide comment on why no investigations are launched into BDF members allegedly entering Namibia through ungazzeted points of entry.
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