Namibia sends hundreds of soldiers to help battle huge wildfire in Etosha National Park

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WINDHOEK, Namibia (AP) — Namibia has sent more than 500 soldiers to help battle a huge wildfire that has burned across 30% of the country's best-known national park.

The office of President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah said Sunday that an unknown number of wildlife have been killed in the fire, which started last Monday and has spread across the vast Etosha National Park in the north of the country.

The park is home to hundreds of species of wildlife, including critically endangered black rhinos. The president's office said the fire had also spread into villages on the outskirts of the park, but no human casualties have been reported. It said the cause of the fire was not yet certain.

Video on national broadcaster NBC showed swathes of blackened trees and grass and antelope escaping from the fire.

Authorities have sent helicopters and trucks with water tanks to fight the fires. They deployed 500 soldiers on Sunday to help with the operation and join a first contingent of 40 soldiers who had been sent to the park on Saturday, according to the president's office.

The statement said approximately 30% of the grazing grounds in the 8,600-square-mile (22,200-square-kilometer) park had been destroyed.

The Etosha National Park is one of Africa's largest and is renowned for its salt pan that turns into a lake during the rainy season and attracts wildlife.

Namibia's Environment Ministry said in a separate statement that the ecological damage to the park was extensive and the fire had burned nearly 3,000 square miles (7,700 square kilometers) of vegetation. The ministry said it suspected that the fire may have been started by a charcoal production business on a farm bordering the park.

Namibia is a hot, arid country in southern Africa and the fire came in the midst of the driest time of the year in Etosha.

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AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa