Sudan's army and proxy militias are slaughtering large numbers of elephants in unstable parts of central Africa to fill growing demand for ivory in Asia, mainly in China, according to a report released on Monday. Between 6,000 and 12,000 elephants a year are being poached for their tusks in southern Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Central African Republic, Kenya and possibly Chad for export to Asia, the report said. Esmond Martin, a respected elephant researcher who led the month-long investigation, told reporters here that the Sudanese army and pro-government militias had virtually invaded Garamba National Park in the eastern DRC where he said "the killing of elephants is out of control."
"The poachers are mainly members of the Sudanese army who possess the necessary firearms and ammunition," he said. "They also have access to government transport to move tusks to Khartoum and Omdurman."
Merchants in the Sudanese capital and the market town of Omdurman are the chief suppliers of ivory trophies of which about 75 percent are sold to Chinese nations, according to Martin. While large numbers of buyers also hail from South Korea and the Gulf Arab states, the report said Chinese contractors working in Sudan's oil, construction and mining sectors are the largest consumers. It said the demand for trophies in China, the world's most populous nation, has been fanned by its growing economy and the skyrocketing purchasing power of its population. This, in turn, has driven up the cost of illegal ivory from about US$15 to US$43 a kilo in 1997 to between US$44 and US$148 dollars per kilo, depending on the quality and weight of the tusks, the report said. "The unregulated ivory trade in Khartoum and Omdurman, both for local markets and as an entry port to Egypt, has had devastating effects on elephants, especially in central Africa," he said.| Terrorism is bad for children, elephants, and other living things. |
|