ABIDJAN: About 150 kilogrammes of elephant tusks coming from Nigeria have been seized in Ivory Coast in the biggest such haul in a decade, the customs department said on Friday.
The seizure was made in the border town of Bonoua near Ghana, through which the tusks were transported from Nigeria, an official said.
“Twenty-four elephant tusks weighing 150 kg were hidden in a bus coming from Nigeria,” an Ivorian official said.
He said Wednesday’s seizure was “the biggest in ten years” in Ivory Coast.
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More than 35,000 elephants are slaughtered each year on the African continent from an approximate population of more than 450,000 in the wild.