| Wildlife conservationists say Sudanese Arab militiamen with ethnic ties to the Janjaweed in Darfur are killing elephants and white rhinos in Congo. There is increasing fear that the militiamen are poaching animals to fund an on-going civil war in the Upper Nile region of southern Sudan. The Nairobi-based spokeswoman for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, Elizabeth Wamba, says a recent survey of Garamba National Park in eastern Congo shows that 25 elephants and more than a dozen rare northern white rhinos have been slaughtered there in the past year. She says the poaching has reduced the world's northern white rhino population in the wild to fewer than 30. "Garamba is located in the northeast corner of the DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo], so it borders Sudan," she said. "And there have been reports that some Sudan elements have been getting into Garamba for poaching, mainly by foot but, of late, we have also had incidents where some elements have been getting in on horseback." Park officials in Garamba say that they are certain the poachers are Arab Murahaleen militiamen, who come from the same ethnic group as the pro-Khartoum Arab Janjaweed militiamen in the western Darfur region of Sudan. Witnesses say the militiamen are using donkeys to carry ivory and rhino horn back into Sudan. |