Namibia has reported 17 cases of wildlife crimes and 34 arrests during Operation Saving African Wildlife through Multilateral Assistance (SAMA), which was conducted between January and February.

Hosted by the Namibia Revenue Agency (NamRA) in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the World Customs Organisation (UNODC), Operation SAMA is the first Africa-focused initiative on wildlife trafficking.

Operation SAMA united 35 nations from East, West, Central, and Southern Africa in a concerted effort to combat the illicit wildlife trade. 

Officials of the Bamunu Conservancy in the Zambezi Region fear residents of Muketela village in the Linyanti constituency will not have a good harvest as wildlife continues to destroy their crops.

It is reported that the community of Muketela faced attacks, with large numbers of elephants spotted recently.

The guards say that although this is a yearly occurrence, the number of elephants seems to have increased, causing even more damage than they've seen in previous years.

Namibia will support the proposal seeking to allow the trade of raw ivory from elephant populations at this year's Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) of Wildlife, Fauna, and Flora in Panama.

Southern African countries are home to more than 200 thousand elephants.

This represents 70% of Africa's elephant population, and about 24 thousand are in Namibia.

The region has over the years been battling with elephant poaching, which threatens the number of the species.

The recent increase in wildlife crimes in the country remains a concern to the Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism. 

A total of 55 rhinos have been poached between January and August this year, an increase of 11 cases compared to last year.

The hotspots for these poaching incidents are the Etosha National Park and private game farms.

A total of 36 people were arrested for rhino-related cases this year, compared to 80 last year.