Poached Niassa tusks leaving via Tanzania

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Poached Niassa tusks leaving via Tanzania

10:49 CAT | 05 Jun 2017

DM (File photo)

Poaching in the Niassa National Reserve continues to flourish even as anti-poaching actions are intensified.

Last week, two elephant tusks were seized in the Nantumbo area of Mavago district in Niassa province, and two poachers on the run since February were recaptured by police authorities. Meanwhile and on a weekly basis, tusks are being seized and individuals who hunt elephant illegally on the reserve are being arrested in neighbouring Tanzania.

Numbers in possession of the newspaper FAISCA, published in Lichinga, point to five Mozambicans arrested this year in Niassa province accused of poaching in the Niassa Reserve.

Operators complain that poachers are in possession large-calibre weapons for hunting elephants and other Niassa species. Last week, a 458-caliber firearm was seized by Tanzanian authorities in the Tanzanian Ruvuma province, near the Mozambican border.

Game reserve operators in Niassa province said at a meeting with the Governor of Niassa, Arlindo Chilundo, that weapons belonging to the Republic of Mozambique Police (PRM) were being used to hunt in the conservation areas.

A poacher was arrested recently in the Niassa National Reserve in Marrupa with an AKM47 type gun from the Nungo police station in the same district, and the head of the Nungo Police Station has been detained.

Chilundo said that 16 elephants were slaughtered by poachers in the Niassa National Reserve this year. Since the disappearance of 80 ivory tusks from Niassa Provincial Forestry Services, seizures have been taking place in neighbouring Tanzania weekly, mainly in Ruvuma province.

Source: Diário de Moçambique