2 traffickers arrested in Gabon with 150 kg of ivory
Two ivory traffickers, a Gabonese and a Cameroonian, were early this week arrested in Libreville and 150 kg of ivory seized from them, a statement from Conservation Justice, a Gabonese NGO involved in protection of wildlife, said on Thursday.
The Cameroonian Andre Kana and his Gabonese driver Lucien Bernard Metogo Ollomo were arrested on June 29 by the judicial police and forest rangers, with support from Conservation Justice officials.
The traffickers were questioned and later locked up at the Libreville prison on Thursday evening.
Twenty four years since Gabon’s ratification of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the country’s elephants have remained threatened by poaching and international ivory trafficking.
Gabon’s law prohibits hunting, holding, transporting and selling products of protected animals such as elephants. Those found violating this law are liable to imprisonment for a period of six months with a fine of over 16,000 U.S. dollars.
(Cihan/Xinhu)