Namibia plans to cull more than 700 wild animals, including dozens of elephants and hippos, and distribute the meat to help locals struggling under what the United Nations has called the worst drought to affect the country in 100 years.

The government will kill 83 elephants, 30 hippos, 300 zebras, 60 buffaloes, 100 wildebeests, and 50 impala and 100 eland antelopes, the country’s Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism said in a press release this week.

The animals are being “sourced from national parks and communal area with sustainable game numbers,” the ministry said. “We are happy that we can assist the country in this very difficult time and when [it’s] absolutely needed,” it added.

Professional hunters have already culled more than 150 animals, providing more than 56,000 kilograms (about 125,000 pounds) of meat, according to the statement.

The severe drought across southern Africa began in early 2024. Namibia declared a national disaster in May, following similar announcements in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

An estimated 1.4 million people in Namibia, or 48 percent of the population, face “high acute food insecurity,” according to a July report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. Most households in the country depend on crop and livestock farming, the IPC said. The drought has also caused inflation, economic decline and unemployment, the United Nations said.

The United Nations said the drought was brought on by El Niño, a natural global climate pattern that warms waters in parts of the Pacific and affects weather patterns across the world.

The most recent El Niño helped produce record-breaking ocean and air temperatures, and created a domino effect of heat waves and drought in some parts of the world, and flooding storms in others. The year-long event ended in mid-June but the U.N. humanitarian agency says “its impact will have tragic consequences for months to come” across southern Africa, where more than 61 million people now require urgent humanitarian assistance.

While El Niño has long been part of natural climate oscillations, scientists believe that global warming may cause extreme patterns of El Niño — and its inverse counterpart, La Niña — to occur more frequently.

Namibia’s Environment Ministry said that on top of helping provide more meat to people, the cull will also help lessen the impact of the drought on wildlife, by reducing pressure on grazing and water resources. Elephant numbers already needed to be cut to help reduce the amount of conflict between the animals and humans, the ministry said.

At least 100 elephants in Zimbabwe’s largest national park died of drought late last year, the Associated Press reported at the time, as the start of the rainy season was delayed by weeks. The country’s president declared a national disaster over the drought in April.

Southern Africa’s Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) conservation area, which is spread across Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Angola and Namibia, is home to approximately 227,900 elephants, including about 21,000 in Namibia, according to estimates for 2022.