Iitapa
The police have made significant progress in investigating rhino poaching in and around the Etosha National Park, despite several challenges.
The Oshana regional police commander Commissioner Ndahangwapo Kashihakumwa told the media last week while busy with investigations in the veld that the probe is in full swing and has already netted many suspects.
However, investigators face several challenges, including community members protecting each other. He said that villagers from Iitapa near Okahao in the Omusati Region are also refusing to reveal where rhino carcasses were buried. The police have been searching the area since Wednesday for such evidence.
Kashihakumwa, who is spearheading the investigation, appealed to witnesses to come forward with information that can help the police.
He and his team have been walking around Iitapa with the suspects hoping they would pinpoint where carcasses were buried but to no avail, with the supects saying they could not remember.
“The following-up of information is very slow and even the headman of this village seems to find it hard to tell the truth as well as the community at large.”
The Iitapa village headman was detained for interrogation for one day. The police have information that the headman lost one of his horses to a rhino attack during poaching with three of his nephews, who have been detained for questioning.
Kashihakumwa said his team has so far penetrated at least five poaching syndicates and detained 24 suspects who have already appeared in the Okahao Magistrate’s Court. Six additional suspects are under investigation, but have not been arrested.
According to Kashihakumwa, one of the suspects is a foreign national, but he could not provide the suspect’s nationality.
Kashihakumwa said the syndicates operated from Uutsathima, Iitapa, Onamatanga and Okakoto villages in the Omusati Region, while another operated from Kunene Region.
Kashihakumwa said 62 rhinos were poaqched and that according to information he received the suspects started poaching as far back as 2008.