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

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