Andrew Kathindi
A report into the security situation along the Chobe, Kwando and Linyanti rivers in the Zambezi region has recommended that the ministry of home affairs, immigration, safety and security introduce measures to protect the communities from harassment by Botswana Defence Force (BDF).
This comes after the extensive report found that communities live in fear as the BDF constantly harasses them. According to the report, run-ins with the soldiers also totally disrupt their daily activities.
The report further recommended that once these measures are implemented, the ministry should report to the National Council with empirical evidence of reduction of incidence of BDF aggression towards the communities in these areas.
The National Council Standing committee on Home Affairs, Security, Constitutional and Legal Affairs adopted the report on 6 December.
It further recommended that the ministry of agriculture, water and land reform conduct broad stakeholder consultations and awareness sessions with the affected communities to share and explain geographically which islands belong to Namibia and which belong to Botswana.
“The general understanding and belief of the communities are that Botswana is occupying islands that belong to Namibia, and the government is doing nothing to protect its territorial sovereignty in the region,” the report said.
The committee further instructed the international relations ministry to raise the matters of the BDF’s harassment of Namibian citizens in these islands with the Botswana government.
The report has recommended that the ministry also sort out the matter of a lack of broad consultations regarding the Boundary Treaty with Botswana signed in 2018.
The 2018 Namibia-Botswana Boundary Treaty was the central core issue raised by the residents and traditional authorities along the Chobe, Linyanti and Kwando rivers during the compiling of the report.
“Witnesses presented those consultations with the residents of the Zambezi region concerning the Border Treaty of 2018 never took place, and as such, residents along the Chobe, Linyanti and Kwando rivers claim that the treaty violated their rights to development,” states the report.
The claims come after the Namibian government denied that the government-held no consultations with the communities in the Zambezi regions before signing the treaty.
“There is no such thing as a secret treaty that was entered into by the Namibian government with the government of Botswana,” home affairs minister Albert Kawana said earlier this year.
“The committee also recommends that the Zambezi regional council liaise with the health ministry to provide psychological support services to the bereaved families for them to cope with the trauma of losing loved ones.
It is alleged that nearly 37 Namibians have died at the hands of BDF since independence.
The report, compiled between 20 September and 6 October, found that BDF soldiers are enforcing a Code of Conduct (COC) that is still under discussion between the two countries when dealing with the communities in the area.
This, the report found, poses “constant negative effects on the livelihood of communities as they do not have access to natural resources that they have been surviving on for years.”
The COC, which the two countries have not yet finalized, is meant to regulate transboundary natural resource management and environmental issues, including tourism and conservation zones. However, there have also been reports of tour guides in the area being harassed over the COC.
The report was compiled following the killing of the Nchindo brothers and their Zambian cousin in November last year by BDF.
An inquest into the killing of the brothers, held last month in Botswana court, one year after the killing, was postponed to 2022.
