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Africa Horn
White Widow's role in the trade in horns from elephants and rhinos
2014-01-14
Poaching and wildlife crimes are worth an estimated £11billion ($19billion) annually - and it's terrorist groups that are cashing in, according to a new report.
The White Widow isn't the only one cashing in. But whether it's opium in Afghanistan, cocaine in Colombia or ivory in Africa, terrorists know how to make a buck...
U.S think tank the Stimson Center, which carried out the study, is urging governments around the world to work with each other, local residents and the private sector to put a stop to the horrific crimes. The most valuable poaching victims are elephants and rhinos that roam Africa in rapidly decreasing numbers and Al Shabaab, which counts Briton Samantha Lewthwaite, aka the White Widow, among its members, is one of the terrorist groups identified as driving the slaughter of the animals.

The number of black rhinos in Kenya has fallen from about 20,000 in the 1970s to approximately 650 today.

Poachers continue their illegal killing because it is highly profitable. Elephant tusks and rhino horns are sold at extraordinary prices - $50,000 (£30,000) a pound for rhino horns on the black market.

Declaring that the slaughter of elephants contributes directly to the killing of humans, the Elephant Action League (EAL) calls ivory 'the white gold of jihad'.

Al Shabaab apparently pays above the odds for ivory, but so great is the mark-up that it generates up to 40 per cent of its revenues from the trade and can pay its 5,000-odd fighters £180 a month plus food and khat -- the drug used by almost every male Somali. It is thought the fanatics make £400,000 a month selling 'blood ivory' on the black market.

EAL launched a two year undercover investigation of elephant poaching in Kenya in 2011.
Andrea Crosta, who led the investigation, said many poachers he spoke to said they were increasingly selling to al-Shabaab, New Scientist reported.

He said: 'Part of al-Shabaab's funding has been, and is still, from ivory.'

He added that according to sources in the militant group, 3 tonnes of ivory were passing through Somalian ports each month.
Posted by:Steve White

#1  I'm thinking drone zapping the poachers as a worth while thing
Posted by: Chantry   2014-01-14 18:09  

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