Six arrested in major elephant tusk haul

Six people who are suspected to be poachers have been arrested at Kiyombo Village of Manyoni District, Singida Region in connection with a consignment of 55 elephant tusks weighing 170 kilogrammes.

The tusks were extracted from 26 innocent elephants, killed by people who are suspected to be poachers on Monday morning.

Briefing reporters in Arusha, the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Lazaro

Nyalandu said: “Poachers were arrested some hours after midnight, Monday morning and at the moment, they are being held at the Manyoni Police Station.”

According to Nyalandu, the suspects were also found with a military weapon; a Sub-Machine gun with three magazines and there are reports that the six had been on jumbo killing spree in the Rungwa and Kizigo, game reserves located in Manyoni.

“We have dispatched a team of rangers as well as police officers to comb the game reserves because intelligence reports suspect that more culprits could still be in the forest and likely also hoarding more government trophies,” he said.

He noted that the search team will also be on the lookout for the carcasses of the elephants, as the impounded tusks were found to have been freshly hacked from the animals. 

The development comes at a time when the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism is finalising its quarterly report on poaching incidents in Tanzania for the first three months of this year. The report will be tabled in Arusha in the course of this week.  

The Ministry will also launch the second phase of the ‘National anti-poaching machinery,’ (Operation Tokomeza Majangili - II) in line with the country’s war against illegal wildlife hunting and ivory trading.

“Tanzania has joined the global war on ivory trading. The initiative involves China, which is a lucrative outlet for the smuggled tusks, the United Nations and the International Police (INTERPOL),” Nyalandu revealed.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN