Elephant tramples soldier to death
Staff Writer | Friday July 6, 2018 13:55
Information reaching Mmegi is that on June 22, 2018 private Boingotlo Eshima was one of the anti-poaching team members deployed to Kwando when this unfortunate incident happened. He was from Pitsane village in the Goodhope-Mabule constituency. He has been a member of the BDF for 11 months.
“They were in a harbour at night and they got scared and did not act, as they should. When they ran, it chased him and trampled on him,” a highly placed source said.
He added that the team did not carry torches and the pilots could not fly in at night, as they were not night rated. The body of Eshima was collected the following day.
The army has confirmed the incident. “We can confirm an unfortunate incident in which a male Botswana Defence Force (BDF) soldier lost his life due to an elephant attack that occurred during an anti-poaching operation, on 22 June 2018.
We regret we cannot go into details of operational matters and BDF tactics, as this will be irresponsible. It has the potential to compromise our future operations,” Major Fana Maswabi of the Directorate of Protocol and Public Affairs at the BDF said.
He added that they are only able to conduct their operations successfully through application of techniques peculiar to BDF.
“Lastly, we wish to inform you that due to security reasons we cannot discuss the capability of our equipment in the public domain.” Eshima was buried in Pitsane last weekend.