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Otjiwarongo - A carcass of a female black rhino was discovered with a bullet wound in the stomach, on 18 August 2023 at a waterhole inside a game farm in the Grootfontein district of the Otjozondjupa region.

A case of hunting of specially protected game without a permit is being investigated by the police in Otjozondjupa after a carcass of a female black Rhinoceros was found at a water hole.

The Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) plays a vital role in countering organised wildlife crime in Namibia. With a renewed spike in rhino poaching in 2022, the FIC's role underlines the extent to which rhino poaching is driven by organised criminal gangs and the extensive criminal networks that facilitate horn trafficking. This is according to the National Namibia Wildlife Protection Report for 2022, which found that poaching and trafficking of live plants also appear to be coordinated via well-organised online platforms…

"On August 1, South Africa's Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment released an update that rhinoceros (rhino) poaching dropped 11% in the first half of 2023 compared to the same period of the previous year. Between 1 January and 30 June 2023, poaching trends also continued to show a move away from the Kruger National Park to provincial and private reserves," the report stated.

A man was arrested in the East Rand after being found in possession of a rhino horn worth an estimated R170,000. The Hawks, working in collaboration with the Benoni K9 Unit, stopped a suspicious Toyota Etios during a routine patrol along the R21 highway near Atlas Road. Upon searching the vehicle, officers discovered a 1.6-kilogram rhino horn concealed in a yellow plastic bag under the driver's seat. The driver, identified as 47-year-old Hlulani Baloyi, was arrested on the spot and subsequently appeared in the…

The head of the North West Parks and Tourism Board has told Parliament that the thieves who stole 51 rhino horns from its guarded facility in June must have had intimate knowledge of its security system.

Durban - The IFP in KwaZulu-Natal said it was concerned about the rhino poaching incidents taking place in KZN and the Kruger National Park.

Fifteen years after South Africa was hit by an unprecedented wave of rhino-horn poaching, the slaughter rate remains relentless - with one rhino shot almost every day in KwaZulu-Natal, the historic heartland of global rhino conservation. More than 60% of the rhinos killed in South Africa so far in 2023 drew their last breaths in KwaZulu-Natal as poachers continue to shift more of their deadly firepower and axes to the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, one of the world’s last strongholds of wild rhino conservation. Latest poaching …

Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy briefs media regarding the Rhino situation in the parks of South Africa at SANPARKS head office in Pretori, 1 August 2023. The government said on Tuesday its world-famous Kruger park had witnessed a steady decline in rhino killings as better patrols and the onslaught it suffered in recent years pushed poachers elsewhere. The government said 42 of the park's rhinos were killed for their horns from January to June this year, almost half the numbers poached in…

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment says 231 rhinos have been killed thus far this year in South Africa. This figure is from 1 January to 30 June 2023.

In the war on poaching, some of the best defenders have four legs. Trained canines are used in some of South Africa's national parks to detect wildlife contraband like rhino horns, pangolin scales, and ivory at airports and roadblocks. Other dogs are trained to track and apprehend poachers in the field. According to Save the Rhino, 9,885 rhinos have been lost to poaching in the last decade. But Carl Thornton, founder and director of Pit-Track K9 Conservation and Anti-Poaching Unit, says the numbers are likely much higher.

The Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana has revealed that over the past 10 years, rhino horns weighing 865kg were seized during Sars Customs border operations between 2014 and 2021. Countries where rhino horns have been trafficked to include Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, Vietnam, Dubai, Turkey and Nigeria.

In the past three years, gun battles between rhino poachers and the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Authority (ZimParks) rangers have killed about 20 people. Wildlife economists say a country like Zimbabwe, which has a large rhino population, needs to continue to remain alert as the endangered species to be under threat from poachers. According to America-based wildlife organisation, World Animal Foundation, the rhino horn is estimated at US$65 000 per kg, which is more than the value of gold or diamonds.

Poaching intensified over the past three years following the 2018 decision by the government to disarm the anti-poaching unit under the DWNP. The 100+ rhinos poached since the disarmament represents a 100+ percent increase in poaching incidents when compared to the previous three years when Botswana lost one rhino per annum in the preceding 2015, 2016, and 2017 when the unit had firearms. There were at least 12 rhinos poached in 2018, 29 rhinos in 2019, and over 50 poached by the end of 2020.

Police who arrested two men carrying a rhino horn on a highway near Witbank allegedly demanded a R30,000 bribe to release them.

A rhino conservationist has turned to the world of non-fungible tokens to help fund efforts to keep poachers at bay.

The 11-count indictment alleges that Lokua and Mujangi worked with a middleman to smuggle four packages into the United States. In August and September, 2020, the defendants sent three shipments containing a total of about 49 pounds of ivory by air freight to Seattle. In May 2021, they sent another package with approximately five pounds of rhinoceros horn. At the same time, the defendants conspired to conduct large transactions via ocean freight, offering the buyer more than two tons of elephant ivory, one ton of pangolin scales, and multiple intact rhinoceros horns. On Nov.

Two rhino poachers have been sentenced to an effective 16 years' imprisonment each. The men were arrested in February when rangers from the Lower Sabie and Crocodile Bridge sections of the Kruger National Park reacted after three armed suspects were seen entering the park by crossing the border between South Africa and Mozambique, said police spokesperson Brigadier Selvy Mohlala.

Two foreign nationals from the Democratic Republic of Congo were arrested outside Seattle last week and indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy and money laundering for allegedly smuggling elephant ivory and rhino horns into the United States.

Authorities in Democratic Republic of Congo have seized $3.5 million worth of ivory, rhinoceros horn and pangolin scales in a joint operation with United States officials, the U.S. embassy in Kinshasa said on Monday. Two wildlife traffickers were also arrested in the United States on Nov. 4, following a more than two-year investigation between the two countries and global police agency Interpol.

Kenya remains a leading spot for laundering proceeds of illegal wildlife trafficking, logging, and fishing in Africa, a report on illicit financial flow by Sentry shows. Dubbed 'Kenya Illicit Finance Risk and Assessment', the report says the country acts as a transshipment site for East Africa. According to the report, Tanzania, Mozambique, Uganda, DRC, Zambia and South Sudan traffic their wildlife products via Kenya heading to Asian countries including China and Hong Kong via Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Singapore.

Airlink, the privately owned Southern African regional airline, will implement a company-wide programme involving training, new processes and supply chain interventions to identify and combat illicit wildlife trade. The illegal wildlife trade is valued between USD $50 to 150 billion (approximately between ZAR730 billion - ZAR 2,19 trillion at current exchange rates) per year and is one of the five most lucrative global crimes. Illegal killing and trading of wild animals is a global crisis, with species being hunted to extinction for their horns, skins and teeth.

Five men were arrested last week for conspiring to poach a rhino, while another was found guilty of illegal possession and dealing in python skins. He will have to cough up N$7 000 or spend 20 months behind bars. Meanwhile, three Namibians were arrested at Epukiro when they were found in possession of two live pangolins on 29 October. Tjovanga Kamburona, Tjarirove Kamburona and Nguvarua Tjombe were all charged for the illegal possession and dealing of controlled wildlife products.

Heartbreaking images show a rhino with tears running down its face after its horn was hacked off by cruel poachers in South Africa. The 4,500lb male Southern White rhino was left with a gruesome open wound and also had parts of the bone in its skull removed when it was attacked and left for dead in a game reserve.