Authorities in southeastern DR Congo have seized one and a half tonnes of elephant ivory.
File: Tusks and pangolin scales are burned at a ceremony in DR Congo's capital Kinshasa.KINSHASA - Authorities in southeastern DR Congo have seized one and a half tonnes of elephant ivory, legal and environmental officials said, in one of the largest hauls in Africa in years.
Officers discovered the smuggled tusks aboard trucks in the city of Lubumbashi on Saturday, according to a legal official who declined to be named due involvement in an ongoing investigation into the affair. Police arrested five people but two fled after questioning, the official said. He added that the haul amounted to 1.5 tonnes.Sabin Mande, a lawyer for a coalition of environmental groups, told AFP that he had seen 18 bags of seized ivory in the state prosecutor's office in Lubumbashi on Wednesday.The seizure marks one of the largest in Africa in years. In 2013, Kenyan officials made several seizures including one of four tonnes.
In 2019, Vietnamese officials discovered over nine tonnes of elephant ivory in a shipment carrying timber from the Republic of Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, in the largest recent haul worldwide. China and Southeast Asia are major markets for African ivory, which is mainly used for purported cures in traditional medicine.
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