The Huab River is an

ephemeral river A stream is a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Long large streams ar ...

in the

Kunene Region Kunene is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia. Its capital is Opuwo, its governor is Marius Sheya. The region's name comes from the Kunene River which forms the northern border with Angola. Besides the capital Opuwo, the region contains the ...

of north-western

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

. Its source is southeast of Kamanjab, from where it flows westwards through

Mopane ''Colophospermum mopane'', commonly called mopane, mopani, balsam tree, butterfly tree, or turpentine tree, is a tree in the legume family (Fabaceae), that grows in hot, dry, low-lying areas, in elevation, in the far northern parts of southern A ...

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

until it reaches the

Skeleton Coast The Skeleton Coast is the northern part of the Atlantic coast of Namibia and south of Angola from the Kunene River south to the Swakop River, although the name is sometimes used to describe the entire Namib Desert coast. The indigenous San p ...

and the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. Inflows of the Huab are Klein-Omaruru,

Sout Sawt ( ar, صوت / ALA-LC: ''Ṣawt''; literally "voice"; also spelled sout or sowt) is a kind of popular music found in Kuwait and Bahrain. History It is said that sawt was established in Kuwait by the poet, composer, singer and oud player Abda ...

, Aba-Huab, Ongwati and Klip. Huab's

catchment area In human geography, a catchment area is the area from which a location, such as a city, service or institution, attracts a population that uses its services and economic opportunities. Catchment areas may be defined based on from where people are ...

(including its tributaries) is estimated to be between 14,800 and , and includes the town of

Khorixas Khorixas is a town of 6,000 inhabitants in southern Kunene Region, Namibia. It was the capital of the Damaraland bantustan before Namibia's independence. It is the administrative capital of Khorixas Constituency. Most of the inhabitants are from ...

as well as the settlements Kamanjab,

Fransfontein Fransfontein is a small settlement in Kunene Region, Namibia. It is the hometown of former Deputy Prime Minister of Namibia Libertina Amathila Libertina Inaviposa Amathila (née Appolus, born 10 December 1940) is a Namibian physician and politi ...

, and Anker. The

Twyfelfontein Twyfelfontein (Afrikaans: ''uncertain spring''), officially known as ǀUi-ǁAis ( Damara/Nama: ''jumping waterhole''), is a site of ancient rock engravings in the Kunene Region of north-western Namibia. It consists of a spring in a valley flanked ...

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

is located on the banks of the Aba Huab. The scenery is remarkably varied and dramatic: camelthorn, mopane and ana trees line the sides of the riverbed, huge sandy valleys are dotted with gigantic boulder outcrops and rocky hills, red-rock mountains punctuate the horizon, and massive sand dunes studded with black volcanic rocks make the elephants walking below them seem tiny. The Huab is well known for its Desert elephant population which endangers farming activities but is also a potential tourist attraction.

References

Rivers of Namibia Geography of Kunene Region {{Namibia-river-stub