Mozambican ambassador witnesses ivory and rhino horn incineration in Hanoi, Vietnam

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Mozambican ambassador witnesses ivory and rhino horn incineration in Hanoi, Vietnam

8:12 CAT | 15 Nov 2016

The Straits Times / British Ambassador Giles Lever, MozambiqueAmbassador Gamaliel Munguambe and Agriculture and Rural Development Vice Minister Ha Cong Tuan

The Mozambican ambassador to Vietnam, Gamaliel Munguambe, on Saturday was among those who witnessed the incineration of two tonnes of ivory, and other illicit wildlife products in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, according to a press release from the Mozambican Foreign Ministry.

Among the other items destroyed were 70 rhinoceros horns and a quantity of tiger bones. The incineration was supervised by the Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ha Cong Tuan.

The incineration occurred on the eve of a conference on the illegal wildlife trade, organized by the Vietnamese government, which will be held in Hanoi next Thursday and Friday. Munguambe will represent Mozambique at the conference.

The Foreign Ministry release claims that “Mozambique and Vietnam have strengthened ties of cooperation in the fight against the illegal wildlife trade, faced with the increase in the illicit trafficking in ivory and rhinoceros horns prevalent in southern Africa and Asia”.

There have been repeated seizures of rhino horns in Mozambican airports, usually being sent to Vietnam. It is suspected that most of these horns came from rhinos poached in South Africa’s Kruger National Park.

The most recent seizure was on 30 October when police found eight rhino horns weighing 8.8 kilos in a suitcase at Maputo International Airport. The owner of the horns, according to police spokesperson Orlando Mudumane, was a Vietnamese citizen and he intended to take them to Vietnam.

When he was that the suitcase had been seized, the owner fled and the police are still trying to trace him.

Source: AIM