Fighting in Ethiopia has been a Long Time Coming

Amboseli National Park is the stronghold of East Africa’s elephant population. More than 1,600 roam these lands, according to Amboseli Trust for Elephants. Kenya’s total elephant population is now at 34,800, having more than doubled in the last 30 years, according to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). But the country’s human population has also seen a great increase, exacerbating the human-wildlife conflict. Ninety people in Kenya have been killed by wild animals in 2020 so far, KWS says. At least six were killed and three others injured by elephants specifically at Amboseli National Park. Communities living next to protected areas sometimes lose half their crop to wildlife and often become dependent on food aid, according to the World Wildlife Fund. The nomadic pastoral communities who live side-by-side with wildlife lose at least one animal every week to predatory wildlife.

SOURCE: THE CONVERSATION