FACED with worsening food shortages, president Robert Mugabe’s officials have resorted to killing elephants to pacify hungry Zimbabweans, it was claimed yesterday. Game rangers near the western resort town of Kariba were told to kill at least four elephants ahead of celebrations to mark Zimbabwe’s 25th anniversary of independence this week, said Johnny Rodrigues, the chairman of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force (ZCTF). Elephant meat is not traditionally eaten by Zimbabweans but other kinds of meat are increasingly scarce in this once prosperous farming nation. Mr Mugabe used Monday’s independence celebrations to boast about Zimbabwe’s "enormous" achievements since independence in...