Angolan war killing tourism

Several Namibian game lodges could close down and hundreds of employees be retrenched if the security situation along Namibia's border with Angola did not improve soon, 'The Namibian' said on Tuesday. Early in February at least 10 lodges temporarily closed their operations in the northeast, citing the insecurity caused by the Angolan war in which up to 50 Namibian civilians have been murdered. The report said that since the escalation in hostilities the occupancy rate at hotels, lodges and other tourism establishments had plummeted resulting in hundreds of retrenchments. Staff at a number of lodges near the game-rich 25,000-hectare Mahangu Game Reserve in the Kavango region told 'The Namibian' that the prospects remained "very bleak". Dorothea Burrutta, who works at Divundu Guest House on the banks of the Kavango River, said the workforce had been cut by 50 per cent, while its kitchen had closed because there were too few visitors.