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A suspected poacher has been killed and another injured after a shootout with game rangers in Kruger National Park in the early hours of Saturday, June 14. According to the South African Police Service (SAPS), a group of rangers were on patrol in the Satara area, at approximately 12:45am, when they came across three men, who immediately aroused suspicion. One carried a firearm, and the others had backpacks. The rangers instructed them to stop and demanded that the armed individual drop his weapon to the ground, but the men refused and opened fire.

African countries are estimated to lose $17 billion to illegal logging each year. This is part of a
global market with an economic value of $30 to $150 billion. The net profit from the illegal
charcoal trade alone in Africa is estimated to be as much as $9 billion, "compared to the [$]2.65
billion worth of street value heroin and cocaine in the region." High-value timber species are in
immense global demand, with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
reporting that Africa’s share of rosewood exports to China rose from 40 percent in 2008 to 90

Rhino populations are being hammered by poachers, steeping Africa in blood and pushing the species ever-closer to extinction to satisfy the demand for rhino horn in Vietnam and other countries - a demand largely based on the myth of the non-existent medicinal properties of rhino horn. For the record, rhino horn is entirely composed of keratin, also the chief component in hair, nails and animal hooves; you’ve as much chance of curing cancer by biting your nails as you have by drinking powdered rhino horn.