More than 90 buffaloes died by drowning early on Tuesday morning, after trampling on each other near Kavimba Village at Kabulabula in Zambezi's Kabbe North.

Preliminary reports suggest that the buffaloes were fleeing roaming lions that were chasing them from the Botswana side, which forced them to cross the Chobe River into Namibia.

A ranger responsible for the Impalila, Kasika, Mbalasinte, Ivilivinzi and Nakabolelwa areas told NBC News at the scene that they had rushed there after receiving a report from the Kabulabula Conservancy.

Elizabeth Sikabongo said her team planned to secure the site until after counting, before distributing the meat to the three zones of the Kabulabula Conservancy.

She said the situation did not allow for this, as people rushed to the scene to scavenge the meat. 

"Since the Kabulabula area has three zones, we attempted to divide the meat among these zones by allocating 30 portions to each zone. Unfortunately, there were a lot of people, and we could not control that. The police presence was limited, and they were unable to control the situation, resulting in each person taking one animal and creating chaos."

Sikabongo maintained that the situation was manageable compared to similar incidents in the past, during which locals failed to benefit due to the rush of people from surrounding areas. 

"The situation for this year was better because the local people received something. Like in 2023, many outsiders from other regions were coming in and collecting the buffaloes; they were overpowering the locals who could not get anything, but this time, maybe a few people received them from Katima Mulilo, but the rest are people from the conservancy itself."

In 2019, more than 400 buffalo were on record as having drowned less than three hundred metres from the current location.

In 2023, 117 buffalo drowned while fleeing lions.

This is the third trampling of a buffalo stampede drowning in five years in the Kabulabula Conservancy, always during the month of September.