Sudan's army slaughters elephants for Asian markets

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2005

NAIROBI (AFP) — Sudan's army and proxy militias are slaughtering large numbers of elephants in southern Sudan and parts of unstable central Africa to fill a growing Asian market, mainly in China, for ivory.

A report compiled for the British-based wildlife charity Care for the Wild International, said Sudan is now the focal point for the illegal ivory trade which is attacking elephant populations in surrounding nations.

Southern Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Central African Republic, Kenya and possibly Chad have become major sources for raw ivory exports to Asia through Sudan, where the sale carved items produced before a 1989 international ban on the trade in ivory is allowed, it said.

Esmond Martin, a respected elephant researcher who...