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Operatives of the Nigeria Customs Service have intercepted a 40-foot container loaded with donkey genitals along the Kaduna-Abuja Expressway, the Service said on Thursday. The interception, suspected to be destined for illegal export, was uncovered on Friday, June 5, 2025, at about 9 pm following a coordinated surveillance operation by officers of the Special Wildlife Office and Customs Intelligence Unit. The Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, disclosed this at a press briefing in Abuja on Thursday.

Southern African nations are at it again. Nyasha Chingono reported in late May that those “hosting the largest elephant populations in the world made a fresh pitch…to be allowed to sell their $1bn ivory stockpiles”, purportedly to allocate it towards conservation. How they derive this figure is unclear, and the report doesn’t question its veracity. Current ivory prices are around US$400/kg in illicit markets in the East and averaging about $92/kg across Africa (except for Nigeria which has now become the continent’s major export hub).

There are around 26 000 rhinos left in the world. 68% of those live in South Africa. By far the majority of them are Southern White Rhinos, which are particularly vulnerable to poaching, because most of them are found in the open Savannah of national parks, making them easy targets. There are four other remaining species of rhino. The Black Rhino, of which there are around 6000, is found in southern and east Africa. The other African species, the Northern White Rhino, is effectively extinct, as the two remaining are both female.