Namibia: Nurse Recounts Liberation Atrocities

What the report says

Anna Nghihondjwa-Haipinge, a retired Namibian nurse and war veteran now 77, has revisited her role in supporting PLAN fighters during the liberation struggle and the reprisals that followed, according to New Era, distributed by AllAfrica. The account was published from Ongha ahead of Heroes’ Day commemorations and centers on her recollection of helping wounded fighters with food, medicine and other supplies while she worked at Engela Hospital in the mid-1970s.

She said that after South African apartheid troops raided the hospital, she and other nurses were arrested, taken first to Ondangwa and later to Windhoek, and interrogated and abused. The report says she described harsh jail conditions, torture and attempts by investigators to force them to identify Swapo and PLAN members. Her testimony also places the events in the broader conflict between the apartheid administration and Namibian liberation movements.

The article further says Nghihondjwa-Haipinge was later tried in Swakopmund with several others, including Aron Mushimba, Hendrick Shikongo, Andreas Nangolo, Naemi Namboga and Rauna Nambinga. Some defendants were initially sentenced to death or long prison terms, before a later retrial changed those outcomes. She was eventually released and returned home to Ongha, where she rebuilt her life with her husband.

Her story adds personal detail to Namibia’s independence history and underscores the risks faced by civilians, including health workers, who supported the liberation struggle in secret.