Staff Reporter
IN a shocking incident reported to the Namibian Police in Ngoma – in the Chobe River’s floodplain – is a Botswana Defence Force (BDF) patrol with a mounted light machine gun on the roof of their patrol vehicle, ordering two cruise boats off the Chobe River at gunpoint.
The commander of the patrol at one stage cocked his AK-47 aiming at the boat with close to twenty passengers and two crewmen on board. Passengers were able to clearly observe how the commander shifted his AK’s safety mechanism into the automatic firing position and pointing at the boats ordering them “to leave Botswana immediately.”
The action of the BDF is defying orders from both the Heads of State of Namibia and Botswana for restraint and calm after an incident in which four Namibians from the Impalila Island were shot and killed by the BDF at the beginning of November last year.
Locals said that there is no NDF deployment on the Namibian side, while at least five bases are manned by the BDF from Ngoma and Ihaha in the floodplain area of Ngoma.
They feel intimidated and unsafe because the actions of BDF are instilling fear in the communities of the Botswana/Namibia area who used the rich abundance of the floodwaters for the past 500 years in recorded history.
“It seems that the BDF patrols act as if they are still under command of the conservationist President, General Ian Khama, who was the introductory power behind the ‘shoot to kill’ policy that already led to the loss of innocent lives on both sides of the border.
The police at Ngoma forwarded the report to the Navy Commander at Ngoma and are awaiting a response and an official visit as well as an investigation from the government to clear the confusion of the borderline in the various floodplains since the BDF patrol seemingly had no clue.
According to one of the boat pilots, the BDF’s action on Saturday is quite common and has intimidated various operators to the extent that they now opt to avoid the world-famous game viewing spots.
Tourism of both countries might suffer and a serious incident such as this will have critical implications for the industry that cannot be afforded during a Covid and tourism recovery.
The boat pilot related: “We were looking at about 35 elephants that moved on about 2km further from the boat when a BDF Landrover was coming downhill on the Botswana side of the river at high speed. Some passengers speculated that it was chasing us.
The BDF overtook the two boats motioning for us to stop and came closer to the river bank. Two officers approached us, carrying guns. The commander was motioning that people must not film, although, at that time, we did not realize it was what he was gesturing, because people were looking through binoculars.
When I brought the boat to a stop, I greeted them, but they shouted ‘go out of here – this is Botswana, get out you are in Botswana’, I replied ‘No, Sir, you are wrong. I am in the middle of the main channel. Where you see us now and called us to a stop is on the Namibian side and not in Botswana. Where you see us, is in the middle of the main channel.’ After a back and forth of words for ten minutes a third officer, seemingly the driver, came with his cellphone and told me his GPS on the phone says that we are on Botswana’s side.
The Namibian boat pilot then informed him: “You are totally wrong. Your GPS of course will show that you are in Botswana! If you come to the boat, your phone GPS will show that you are in Namibia.”
The commander became extremely angry and unslung his AK-47 from his shoulder and pointed it at us and said we must leave Botswana, while the other officer also held his gun.
Not to create any problems we drove off and away to the flood plains while they were still following us before turning off to their base, one of at least five in the area with no Namibian bases on the Namibian side.”
The boat pilot said it was not the first time that he was stopped by the BDF, but that it never before occurred in such an aggressive way.
The tour company made a police report at Ngoma, while the police reported the incident to the Namibian navy stationed at Ngoma.
The passengers consisted of South Africans, international guests, a local young couple who resides in Katima Mulilo, and other Namibians.
The name of the boat pilot and the photographer are provisionally withheld to enable them to assist with further investigations into a continuous BDF intimidation campaign against Namibians.
