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Namibian Wildlife Crimes article archive

This archive of published media articles about wildlife crime in Namibia aims to:

  • provide easy public access to published information and statistics
  • enable easy stakeholder access to articles
  • provide a comprehensive archive of wildlife crime reporting in Namibia

Public access to information is a vital component of ensuring community engagement in prevalent issues. Wildlife crime is one of the pressing environmental issues of our time.

Wildlife crime investigations are generally covert operations requiring utmost confidentiality to succeed. Investigations and prosecutions in complex cases may take months or even years to complete. For this reason, the information that can be released to the public without compromising cases is often limited. Nonetheless, the Namibian government strives to share as much information as possible with the public.

The Namibian media has welcomed this approach and regularly publishes statistics and feature articles on wildlife crime. These are entered into the database at regular intervals, creating a comprehensive archive of wildlife crime reporting in Namibia.

Explore your search results using the filter checkboxes, or amend your search or start a new search.

Displaying results 1 - 10 of 10
Wednesday, 8 October 2025
2025. South Africa: Tragic news from the Eastern Cape.

A pregnant rhino has been shot dead and dehorned by poachers on a game reserve near Alexandria. The incident comes as a gruesome reminder of the rhino poaching scourge, which has been relatively quiet in the Eastern Cape in the past six months but continues to threaten the survival of the species. We will update with more information once it becomes available. The only info circulating at the moment is currently behind a pay wall, which we don't have access to.

Friday, 3 October 2025
2025. Live pangolin saved from the illegal trade.

South Africa: Great team work guys. Live pangolin saved from the illegal trade - disgraceful that 2 cops were among the suspects arrested! In an intelligence driven operation yesterday, 4 suspects were arrested at Makro Wonderboom, Pretoria, 2 were SAPS police officers, 2 x 9mm pistols retrieved. Outstanding work from SAPS Cullinan stock theft and Endangered species, SAPS Silverton K9 and support from US Homeland Security

Thursday, 11 September 2025
2025. 2 traffickers arrested with 32kg ivory.

EAGLE Côte d'Ivoire - 2 traffickers arrested with 32kg ivory. The ivory, concealed in a rice sack, was trafficked from Liberia. The Burkina Faso National trafficker denounced the other for being a known big ivory trafficker.

Sunday, 20 July 2025
2025. Zimbabwe Police has arrested one Cong Yanzhong.

Zimbabwe Police has arrested one Cong Yanzhong from China for possession of 3 rhino horns worth US$240 000 and 4 pieces of raw ivory weighing 36kgs . The Chinese national appeared in court and was remanded in custody to 22 July 2025 for trial.

Thursday, 3 July 2025
2025. As of July 3, 2025, the trial of former Kruger National Park (KNP) regional ranger Rodney Landela and his co-accused, Kenneth Motshotsho, continues in the Skukuza Regional Court.
As of July 3, 2025, the trial of former Kruger National Park (KNP) regional ranger Rodney Landela and his co-accused, Kenneth Motshotsho, continues in the Skukuza Regional Court. The two face multiple charges related to the poaching of a white rhino in the Kingfisherspruit area in 2016.
Wednesday, 21 May 2025
2025. China Customs makes a new arrest as itcontinues to uproot the Shuidong syndicateexposed by EIA.

Zhanjiang Customs of China announced on 17 May that the individual - named only as Huang inthe official statement - had been arrested and repatriated from Mozambique . EIA commends China Customs for its commitment to criminal justice and we congratulate it on thislatest success. The Shuidong ivory smuggling network was first exposed by EIA in 2017 , following our three-yearinvestigation tracing the syndicate's operations in Tanzania and Mozambique. The syndicate came from Shuidong, in Guangdong province, China.

Wednesday, 27 March 2024
Mpaka C 2024. Large ivory seizure in Mozambique comes amid worrying signs of increasing elephant poaching.

A major shipment of 651 pieces of elephant ivory has been seized in Mozambique en route to Dubai. Officials from Mozambique's Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) and the Tax Authority intercepted a container at Maputo port on 22 March 2024 and found the ivory concealed in a shipment of bags of corn. This is the third known large-scale seizure of elephant ivory exported from Mozambique since 2022.

Monday, 20 March 2023
2023. 548 rhinos poached in 2022.

The latest reports from national governments and agencies reveal (so far) that approximately 548 rhinos were poached in Africa last year. Overall, the total is a slight increase compared to 2021, when 539 rhinos were poached. This is a significant change from 2013 - 2017, when more than 1,000 rhinos were killed each year, yet it’s still dangerously high. On average, one rhino is still poached every 16 hours. Most of the rhinos poached last year were killed in Namibia and South Africa. In both countries, poachers have shifted their focus to new places.

Friday, 10 June 2022
2022. What's going on in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa?.

Since the beginning of 2022, more than 100 rhinos have been poached in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Province. This staggering toll compares to 102 rhinos poached in the Province during the whole of 2021, and 93 in the whole of 2020. Unless this trend is urgently reversed, 2022 could end with a new KZN poaching record, going beyond the horrific 222 rhino poaching deaths recorded in 2017. The recent increase in poaching in KZN is likely due to several factors. First, there has been a devastating decline in the number of rhinos in the Kruger National Park.

Wednesday, 26 January 2022
2022. Three years on from Uganda's 2019 ivory and pangolin scale seizure, there's still no sight of justice.

Three years ago this month, the Ugandan authorities seized a significant quantity of elephant ivory and pangolin scales en-route to Vietnam through Kenya. Acting on intelligence, the Ugandan Revenue Authority (URA) conducted a law enforcement operation targeting a Vietnamese wildlife trafficking network. It seized 3,299kg of elephant ivory - the largest ivory seizure in Uganda to date - and 424kg of pangolin scales.

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