Translated from French by an automated online translation service, so please excuse the roughness. See link for original. Thank you to Anne Dillon for volunteering time to finding these French articles and doing the online translating.
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As one of the protected animal species, the elephant has often been the object of the lust of poachers from all sides because of its tusks of ivory, prized on the international market. Several strategies are put into practice to obtain these tusks. The use of firearms was up one point, the most widely used mode. Certainly the law prohibiting the free circulation of weapons of war and small arms has caused these poachers to resort to the poisoning system
This is what reveals Radio Okapi who notes that three elepants were found dead by poisoning, their tusks swept away in the month of August in Katala in Malemba Nkulu, province of Upper Lomami (after the territorial division).
Echoing the main curator of the National Park Upemba, Jean Muluwa noted on Tuesday, September 29, some poachers were in search of ivory tusks, says our source.
“We found three elephants on the river Lufira floating and no trace of bullets on their bodies. After inquiry, the population succeeded in concluding that these poachers use poison composed of products with a strong toxic content, which they inject into fruits in the places where the elephants pass who, having eaten them die,” declared the national conservative.
As can be expected, this practice encourages fear about the disappearance of this specific species and other species such as primates breed monkeys, which are also protected species. In this context, even humans are in danger if they were to eat the meat of these animals poisoned—the rest would be left in the forest. There is also fear that this practice will be followed by poachers operating in other parks.
To address this situation, the main curator of Upemba Park seeks the involvement of political and traditional authorities. With this logic, environmental services and nature conservation have a major role to play, equipping anti-poaching brigades with substantial resources.
Make also sure that the law banning the ivory trade is strictly applied in our customs services. One will remember that recently trunks containing elephant tusks seized at the N’Djili International Airport. This is how it will normally act to discourage poachers and other ivory traffickers and traffickers of other protected species.
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