An official at Namibia’s Kabulabula Conservancy told the BBC the herd of buffaloes was fleeing lions in Chobe National Park.
“Whenever they are chased by lions, they try to cross over into Namibia and start [trampling over] each other,” the conservancy’s Mbeha Tadeus said.
A spokesperson for the Namibian Environment, Forestry and Tourism Ministry, Ndeshipanda Hamunyela, confirmed that the animals came from Botswana, but could not say whether they were from Chobe National Park.
Ms Hamunyela told the BBC that the meat from the carcasses would be “distributed to communities in the immediate area”.
In a video shared by the Namibian public broadcaster, external, NBC, on its X page, residents can be seen dividing the meat among themselves near the banks of the river.
The NBC put the number of buffaloes killed at 90, reporting that the incident happened at around 05:00 local time (07:00 GMT).