2020 Botswana–Namibia border killings
Open-knowledge reference entry
On 4 November 2020, anti-poaching forces of the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) killed four men at Sedudu on the Chobe River at the Botswana–Namibia border. They were brothers Tommy Nchindo, Martin Nchindo and Wamunyima Nchindo, and their cousin Sinvula Munyeme. This caused an international incident between Botswana and Namibia.
Background
Botswana has historically struggled to address poaching, and the government had authorised military force with a shoot-to-kill policy to protect native fauna. The policy is controversial in the Southern Africa region, with critics arguing that it presents a threat to innocent civilians. At least 12 suspected poachers had previously been killed by Botswana Defence Force anti-poaching forces in 2020, and a total of 37 Namibian citizens were killed in poaching raids by December 2021. The countries of Botswana and Namibia share close relations, but the shoot-to-kill policy has caused tension between the two governments and their citizens.
In 2018, the government of Botswana hired a Namibian man to monitor activity on the Chobe River while working as a tour guide. The tour guide alerted the BDF after spotting the four men on the Chobe River. A brother of one of the victims who is still alive claims that the tour guide knew the Nchindo family personally before the killings.
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This entry incorporates text from “2020 Botswana–Namibia border killings” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.