Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe

Police vow to curb elephant poaching

From Our Correspondent in Bulawayo
issue date :2005-Aug-19

POLICE in Matabeleland North have launched an operation along the Zambezi to
curb elephant poaching following reports that some armed people were
sneaking in and out of Zimbabwe undetected.
Officer commanding the province, Senior Assistant Commissioner Bothwell
Mugariri told The Daily Mirror yesterday that they embarked on the exercise
following an upsurge in poaching activities over the past months by
suspected armed Zambians.
Mugariri said the poachers were taking advantage of the Zambezi River to
sneak into Zimbabwe and then canoeing back into Zambia with the jumbos
tusks.
"There has been a worrying trend in Victoria Falls where a number of
elephants have been poached by some armed poachers who cross the Zambezi
River from neighboring Zambia," the police chief said.
"These poachers have killed several elephants and at times made off with
tusks.
At times our officers and rangers from the National Parks and Wildlife
Management Authority have managed to stop their illicit activities."
Early this month, police together with Parks rangers, engaged suspected
Zambian poachers in a four-hour pitched gun battle clearly demonstrating
that they were dealing with a well equipped enemy.
"The exchange showed that the poachers were adequately armed and knew that
they could come across the police," Mugariri said. "It was after they
escaped that we managed to realise they had killed two elephants."
He also noted that cases of cattle rustling were up in Jambezi, Binga and
Victoria Falls.
"Most villagers in these areas have lost cattle worth millions of dollars to
these cattle rustlers. They slaughter the beasts at night and canoe back
into Zambia. The cattle owners only recover the bones (carcasses) when
tracing their cattle," Mugariri said.

Sounds like more of Africa to me.

Hasn't this been going on for thousands of years? Different time, place, people and weapons?