This archive of published media articles about wildlife crime in Namibia aims to:
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.
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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.
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SA_2025_09_South Africa_Tragic news from the Eastern Cape_Roar Wildlife News.pdf | 41.59 KB |
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
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SA_2025_09_Live pangolin saved from the illegal trade_Roar Wildlife News.pdf | 51.08 KB |
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.
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CI_2025_09_2 traffickers arrested with 32kg ivory_Roar Wildlife News.pdf | 43.58 KB |
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.
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ZIM_2025_07_Zimbabwe Police has arrested one Cong Yanzhong_Roar Wildlife News.pdf | 43.62 KB |
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SA_2025_07_As of July 3_Roar Wildlife News.pdf | 68.98 KB |
The leaders of a prolific Chinese wildlife trafficking gang have been pardoned in Malawi, sparking concern that renewed poaching will help spread diseases including coronaviruses. Lin Yunhua and his wife Qin Hua Zhang, who led the notorious Lin-Zhang syndicate that operated across southern Africa, were among 15 people sentenced to jail as part of a major crackdown on ivory trafficking.
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MAL_2025_07_Notorious poaching gang leaders pardoned in Malawi_The Telegraph.pdf | 235.07 KB |
Demand for South Africa's abalone is so high it underpins an international smuggling trade estimated to be worth nearly £100m each year. The poachers who gather on the windswept beaches of South Africa's rocky Cape coast are immediately recognisable by the tools of their trade. Pick-up trucks drop them off clad in wetsuits and carrying diving cylinders, then they head out into the waves on fast rubber boats. Their work is not for the faint-hearted. The waters can be treacherous and divers must also avoid becoming prey for the area's plentiful great white sharks.
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SA_2024_08_How the illicit trade in sea snails came to rival rhino poaching_The Telegraph.pdf | 226.92 KB |
Scores of elephants have been killed for their ivory in Botswana in recent months as a southern African country once considered a sanctuary for wildlife has seen a surge in poaching. Poachers are thought to have killed at least 60 elephants in the past three months in the north of the country and in Chobe National Park, one of the world's top wildlife destinations. Gunmen are particularly targeting the few remaining "big tusker" elephants which have already been hunted to near-extinction.
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BOTS_2024_02_Scores of elephants killed in Botswana amid poaching surge_The Telegraph.pdf | 1000.81 KB |
The illegal trade in Cape pangolin scales amongst East African nations is suspected to be the driving force behind the unlawful killing of the creatures in Botswana.
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BOT_202309_Cape pangolin poaching on the rise_Mmegi Online.pdf | 295.21 KB |
Francistown: Two men from Zimbabwe appeared in court Tuesday to face a count of capturing a protected game animal and another for entering Botswana unlawfully. According to the charge sheet, Kelvi Maposa, 43, and Matitshidza Sibanda, 33, both unemployed and from Plumtree in Zimbabwe, being persons not licensed, authorised or exempted unlawfully captured a pangolin being a protected game animal without a permit to do so.
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ZIM_2023_07_Zim duo in illegal possession of pangolin_Mmegi Online.pdf | 241.41 KB |
Tsabong Police Station Commander, Superintendent Christopher Tlhapi-David says the recent interception of poachers by his team in which the suspects were later found in possession of a pangolin, signals concern for other protected species.
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BOT_2023_06_Pangolin poacher convicted_MmegiOnline.pdf | 234.41 KB |
Franzistown: A tenderpreneur has pleaded with the court to be lenient when sentencing him after pleading guilty to illegal possession of an elephant tusk.
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BOT_2021_09_Tenderpreneur pleads guilty to illegal ivory possession_Mmegionline.pdf | 365.51 KB |
Francistown: It is more than two years since the state successfully appealed the case of the alleged SADC poaching ringleader, Dumisani Moyo, on urgency but has not acted on the appeal thereafter. In May 2019, Magistrate Lebogang Kebeetsweng acquitted and discharged Moyo of allegedly unlawfully being found in possession of a rhinoceros horn contrary to Section 70 of the Wildlife Conservation and National Parks Act.
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BOT_2021_09_Appeal Against SADC Poaching Ringleader Stalls_Mmegionline.pdf | 351.03 KB |
The Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) director Kabelo Senyatso has strongly refuted claims by former president Ian Khama that 120 rhinos have been poached in the last 18 months.
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BOT_2021_03_Rhino poaching_Khama is lying malicious grossly irresponsible_Mmegi.pdf | 380.04 KB |
BDF is investigating a case in which the suspected poacher allegedly stabbed the soldier with a sharp object during an anti-poaching operation.
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BOT_2020-11_Poaching suspect injures soldier_Mmegi Online.pdf | 262.02 KB |
Botswana Defence Force (BDF) soldier and a poacher have died during a poaching incident that happened early this morning at Chiefs Island in heart of the Okavango Delta, the army has confirmed.
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BOT_2020-03_Mmegi Online_Soldier_poacher killed in rhino hotspot shootout.pdf | 322.82 KB |
Shoot-to-kill policies just don’t work, are immoral and unlawful too. To my knowledge, the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) and Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) anti-poaching squads have killed well over 60 alleged poachers since the late 1980s with no discernible effect.
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BOT_2020-02_ Mmegi Online_Of body bags and poached rhinos.pdf | 285.17 KB |