Read the full report here (PDF)
View the interactive report here (in a new window)
Poachers are killing the elephants of Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo at an unprecedentedly rapid pace. Since mid-April of 2014, park rangers have found the carcasses of 131 elephants, slaughtered for their tusks. Unlike in the past, when criminal gangs carried out most of the poaching, the main actors appear to be heavily armed groups using professional techniques. Some of the poachers have been involved in Central Africa’s many conflicts and have carried out multiple atrocities against civilians, creating much misery and suffering over the past decade.
The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), renegade elements of the Congolese national army (the FARDC), and armed poachers from South Sudan and Sudan, have led this recent upsurge in poaching. These groups, in contrast to the criminal gangs, use their revenues from poaching in part to fund their continuing military activities through purchases or food, weapons, ammunition and other supplies.
This increase in poaching is both qualitatively and quantitatively different from previous experience at Garamba. In the past, poachers have relied on relatively low technology tools and have tended to kill one or two elephants at a time. According to African Parks, which manages Garamba on behalf of the Congolese government, the recent attacks have resulted in three to eight elephants being killed at a time, with the tusks often being removed by chainsaws. There is evidence of at least nine elephants being shot from helicopters.
Read the full report here (PDF)
View the interactive report here (in a new window)