UGANDAN SECURITY SEIZES A TON OF BLOOD IVORY
(Posted 12th December 2019)
A Liberian and a Guinea-Bissau national were arrested as security forces stormed their residential house where a ton of blood ivory was being prepared for shipment to the port of Mombasa.
Details of the raid last weekend only became available now and a spokesperson of the Uganda Wildlife Authority confirmed that the two suspects had been under surveillance for some time before the arrests were made.
The blood ivory was smuggled into Uganda – often used as a transit country as poaching within is at record lows – and the Ugandan authorities have been working hand in hand with international agencies to bring the trend to a stop.
Uganda’s elephant population has been growing over the past decades and presently stands at almost 6.000.
With Africa’s elephant population under intense pressure and threat to their survival is it important that the transit of blood ivory from South Sudan, Eastern Congo and as far as the Central African Republic is brought to a halt to take market access in those countries away, as their smuggling operations will inevitably lead to seizures and the loss of their money and income.
Meanwhile has Uganda also began to deploy canine units at Entebbe International Airport which has led to repeated confiscation of prohibited wildlife items and subsequent prosecution of the culprits.
Congratulations to the Ugandan authorities for this major seizure of blood ivory!
