RUNDU - The Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry’s veterinary services vaccinated 17,751 cattle against foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), while 25 207 cattle were covered against contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) during the 2018/19 financial year.

This was revealed yesterday by the Kavango East Regional Governor Samuel Mbambo in his 2019 state of the region address for Kavango East.

“In addition, 1 481 pets were vaccinated against rabies during the period under review, 2018/19,” Mbambo said.

Meanwhile, the governor said there has been a slight decline in serious crimes such as murder, armed robbery, rape and even domestic violence in Kavango East.

Mbambo said crime has declined from 143 cases in 2017/18 to 138 cases in 2018/19, while human trafficking which is also categorised as a serious crime had no cases reported during the period under review, as was the case during 2017/18. “In the category of suicide, there was a slight decline from 17 in 2017/18 to 16 in 2018/19.  In other cases, related to drowning, crocodile and hippopotamus attacks, a total of six cases were recorded during 2018/19 as opposed to seven during 2017/18, representing a decline of 14 percent,”

Mbambo said. “Taking into consideration the above statistics, I wish to applaud the efforts of our law enforcement agencies as well as those of the Namibian Defence Force who came up with the strategy on joint operations to address this phenomenon,” he said.