Translated from French by an automated online translation service, so please excuse the roughness. See link for original. Thank you to Anne Dillon for volunteering time to finding these French articles and doing the online translating.
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This public trial, as highlighted by the site manager and senior curator at the park, is a way to raise awareness and educate people to have respect for nature conservation law in the DRC and will serve as a lesson to all poachers that still circulate in this protected area
A statement from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) of 27 October expressed the joy of this international NGO of US law working in the field of nature conservation and the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICCN) during the sentencing, October 21, at Monkoto in the Equateur province, of two poachers to twenty years in prison.
The garrison military court sitting in the Boende fun room, does one note, criticized the two convicts including illegal possession of military weapons branded AKA 47 and poaching in Salonga National Park (SNP).
The two accused—Inkonde Mundele aka Varia, group chief Mpenge Kaboko (located in the territory of Kole, province of Sankuru)—and his brother Nkake, aka China, were arrested July 17 after a ICCN-FARDC joint patrol launched in the southeastern part of the northern block of the SNP, and they were routed to Monkoto, Tshuapa district in the province of Equateur.
Plead Guilty
Accused of poaching elephants, Nkake Booke confessed and admitted killing an elephant, sending the ivory to Kinshasa for sale. “I am proud of the ICCN eco-guards, which have shown great bravery and demonstrated they respect the oath at the end of their paramilitary,” said the project manager for the conservation of bonobos at PNS, Innocent Liengola, who was quoted in the press release from WCS.
Many times arrested, he noted, since 2013, the poacher has always managed, with the help of his accomplices Kole and Lodja, to escape or to be released when he was transferred to his judgment in Lusambo, in the province of East Kasai. This public trial, made ??possible with support from WCS said site manager and chief curator at PNS Gerard Bofeko Bonango, will serve as a lesson to all poachers that still circulate in the PNS. “I am particularly happy with the verdict because Inkonde has, with his gun, terrorized for a long time. He has been repeatedly suspended from office of the group leader for poaching,” said the administrator of the territory Monkoto John Elias Ngwasetebi.
Bonobo Operation
It is noted that the Government of the DRC initiated since 2011 the anti-poaching operation named Operation Bonobo, with a battalion of FARDC detached for this purpose. This dragnet directed by eco-guards in collaboration with FARDC demonstrates that a good intervention strategy can lead to the reduction of professional poaching perpetrated in protected areas. Now, with support from WCS, poachers arrested by eco-guards should also be brought to justice for their crimes they respond to.
Covering an area of ??about 33.000km2, PNS is a haven for many species of wildlife, including elephants and bonobo. During the last two decades, supported the statement of the WCS, poaching has taken on alarming proportions, certainly fueled by the growing demand for ivory. This led to a significant decrease in the number of elephants in the protected area.
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