Fires spread to Botswana's two most popular tourist destinations

According to reports released on 7 October 2008, fires have spread to the Okavango Delta and Tsodilo Hills, Botswana's two most popular tourist destinations in the country's northwest. The wildfires began in Namibia's Caprivi Strip, and reached Botswana on 3 October. The fires have destroyed vast expanses of land in the two nature reserves, and also destroyed the Kake foot and mouth disease control fence in the Okavango Delta, exposing the Gantsi population to the highly contagious and mobile disease. The fires have also destroyed 80 percent of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve -- located in central Botswana -- and 50 percent of the Maikaelelo Forest Reserve in the Chobe area -- located in the northeast -- as well. Although firefighters have made efforts to contain the flames, the fires continue to burn; Botswana is also being threatened by ongoing fires in neighboring South Africa and Zimbabwe, that will likely cross over into the country in the coming days.