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Six suspects have been arrested in connection with wildlife crimes in six separate cases from 18 April to 25 April, while 10 illegal wildlife products were confiscated.

On 12 April, Haita Paulus Tjambiru was arrested at Orupembe in connection with an old case dating back to October 2015 in which a rhino was illegally hunted. He was charged with contravening the Nature Conservation Ordinance. In another incident at Ondangwa on 13 April, Phillipus Alfeus was arrested for being in possession of two python skins.

Although wildlife crime is ultimately driven by demand in consumer countries, Namibians continue to make up over 90% of arrested wildlife crime suspects in country. This according to the environment ministry and police’s Annual Wildlife Crime Report for 2020. A massive 91% of the 304 suspects arrested for wildlife crimes of high value species in last year were Namibians. Suspects from neighbouring countries made up the rest of the arrests and included Angolans (5%), Zimbabweans (4%) and Batswana (0.4%).

Among the more than 300 people arrested for wildlife crimes involving high-value species last year, several were important, high-level suspects that included dealers and kingpins. According to the Combatting Wildlife Crime Annual Report 2020, a kingpin from a neighbouring country with "complex Namibian connections and links to end markets in Asia" was arrested in Namibia during a covert operation last year. A suspect with dual nationalities under different aliases was also arrested while attempting to traffic contraband from regional sources into Namibia.

The Kunene Region has been free of rhino poaching for nearly five months. This was revealed by Save the Rhino Trust (SRT) Namibia chief operating officer, Dr Axel Hartmann, during a debate about legalising the trade in rhino horns in Namibia.

There has been a major breakthrough with the arrest of a Chinese man whom the police believe to be the kingpin in one of Namibia’s biggest rhino-horn smuggling cases. Wang Huii was arrested on Monday at the Windhoek Country Club and has been charged with the possession and export of controlled wildlife products. He appeared in the Windhoek Regional Court in Katutura yesterday. The 40-year-old Huii is being linked to the three Chinese men who were arrested with 14 rhino horns last year at the Hosea Kutaku International Airport.

Another two white rhinos have been poached on a game farm near Okahandja, pushing the number of rhino carcasses that have been discovered in Namibia this year up to 62. Police spokesperson Inspector Slogan Matheus yesterday confirmed that two white rhinos were discovered on farm Okamahoro in the Snyrivier District. The game farm is situated approximately 30km outside of Okahandja.

Suspects have been identified in the ongoing Etosha National Park poaching spree and arrests are expected soon. This is according to Tourism and Environment Minister Pohamba Shifeta, who also announced that the reward money for information leading to the arrest of the poachers had been doubled from N$30 000 to N$60 000. The minister said there had already been breakthroughs in the north-eastern regions, including Zambezi, where six suspects had been arrested.

The probe into poaching in the Etosha National Park, where 54 rhino carcasses have been found this year alone, will include investigating rumours of the possible involvement of park staff and management. "Everything will be investigated and no stone will be left unturned. I have already seen two problems and that is the negligence of staff and the other suspicions could be very serious," said Environment and Tourism Minister Pohamba Shifeta.