In a victory for the fight against poaching, the leader of a poaching gang in Mozambique has been apprehended.
Admiro Chauque was arrested in May 2020. In recent years, the Mozambique judiciary system has begun imposing heavy and stricter penalties on poachers participating in the illegal trade, according to BBC News Africa.
Chauque certainly felt the effects of that when judges in the Maputo Province found Chauque guilty on counts of illegal possession of weapons, and several poaching offences in southern Mozambique and Kruger National Park in South Africa.
Chauque has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Africa’s poaching crisis is thought to have begun in Zimbabwe in 2008, where difficult socio-economic circumstances and the value of a rhino horn intersected and paved the way for rhino poaching. What started in Zimbabwe expanded to South Africa, which has the largest rhino population in the world.
From 2007 to 2014, the rate of rhino poaching increased by 9000%, with the predominant activity originating from Kruger National Park which shares a border with Mozambique.
Save the rhino estimates that more than 1000 rhinos were killed each year between 2013 and 2017 – with the peak of 1349 in 2015 – and at least one rhino per day is being executed for its horn.
A total of 9985 African rhinos have lost their lives to poaching.
Picture: Getaway Gallery
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