Date: Thu Nov 20 18:33:27 2014
Wildlife 'devastated in South Sudan war'
2014-11-20 13:15
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Nairobi - Warring factions in South Sudan have slaughtered, poached and
eaten "alarming" numbers of endangered wildlife, devastating one of Africa's
largest migrations, conservationists warned on Wednesday.
Government and rebel troops, locked into a war marked by widespread
atrocities in which tens of thousands of people have been killed, are
pushing elephants to the brink of extinction in the young nation, said Paul
Elkan from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
Elephants have been slaughtered for their tusks, while giraffe and antelope
have been mowed down with machine guns for meat to feed the tens of
thousands of soldiers and rebels battling each other since December.
"It is a tragedy, the conflict is having a terrible impact," Elkan told AFP
from Juba, where he works with the government to set up parks and protect
the wildlife.
"South Sudan's war weary elephants are now at a precipice, and the ongoing
fighting threatens to push them ever closer towards national extinction."
Enormous loss
The survival of South Sudan's wildlife was once a rare cause for hope in a
land left in ruins by the decades of conflict that paved the way for its
independence in 2011.
But since war broke out again in South Sudan in December last year, almost a
third of elephants fitted by WCS with satellite monitoring collars are
believed to have been poached.
"In less than a year we have witnessed this enormous loss," Elkan said.
"This indicates that there are an alarming number of elephants being
poached."
The latest war had erupted when President Salva Kiir accused his sacked
deputy Riek Machar of attempting a coup. Violence has escalated into an
ethnic conflict involving multiple armed groups.
With gunmen shooting down aircraft - including UN aid helicopters - the WCS
have been unable to deploy its low level flights to verify exact numbers of
wildlife killed.
But Elkan, an American conservationist based in South Sudan for several
years and who conducted the first aerial surveys after the end of the
1983-2005 war, said the 30% loss of collared elephants was "indicative" of
the wider slaughter.
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