Kenya deploys rangers in border park to curb poaching surge

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2006

NAIROBI (AFP) — Kenyan wildlife authorities have sent reinforcements to control a surge in illegal hunting in the country's western Mount Elgon National Park after rangers killed two Ugandan poachers last month, recovering game meat and ammunition, officials said.

"We have sent reinforcements to curb killing of wildlife there," said Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) spokesman Gichuki Kabukuru.

On December 22, KWS rangers killed two Ugandan poachers, recovered two AK-47 assault rifles, 110 rounds of ammunition and a quantity of eland meat, Kabukuru said.

In recent years, elephants in the park on the foot of the extinct Mount Elgon volcano, which straddles the Kenyan-Ugandan border about 400 kilometers (250 miles) northwest of Nairobi, have been hit by poachers as...