2 Zambian wildlife officers have been killed by elephant poachers.
Has President Sata’s decision to disband the board of the Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) emboldened elephant poachers and given them confidence to take on the park rangers. Within days of the President’s announcement 2 ZAWA rangers were shot dead in separate but related incidents.
On Thursday 20th October President Sata announced the immediate dissolution of ZAWA’s board declaring that they put more value on animals than humans. The question that is being asked in some quarters is whether this move has given the green light to poachers and embolden them to take on the rangers.
ZAWA wildlife ranger patrol attacked by poachers.
On 22nd October, just two days after the board was disbanded a patrol of ZAWA rangers in the west Zambezigame management area of Kaala in the Western Province were fired on.
The 4 man patrol came across an orphaned elephant calf and after rescuing it they returned to try and discover why the calf was abandoned by it’s mother. During their investigation they came across a heavily armed gang of poachers. The poachers fired on the patrol killing one of the rangers.
Outgunned the rangers retreated to Nangweshi and reported the incident to the police. They then returned with police reinforcements to retrieve the body. You would have thought that having killed a ranger the elephant poachers would have left the area but they had not. The poachers continued to fire on the rangers and police patrol and it was not until the next day – 23rd October – that the rangers were able to retrieve the body of their murdered colleague.
ZAWA and police officers attacked by poachers.
Rather than try and make an escape once the police reinforcements arrived the poachers stayed in the area shooting at the patrol. This lead to the death of the second ZAWA wildlife ranger on 24th October – the day after President Sata announced the proposed release of over 600 prisoners jailed for wildlife related offences.
The government has denied that the actions by the President had anything to do with the murders of ZAWA officers and highlighted that those released where guilty of minor wildlife crimes and not dangerous criminals.
Mines and Natural Resources Deputy Minister, Richard Musukwa said that the government would do everything it could to encourage joint operations by ZAWA wildlife rangers and the Zambia Police Service to bring the dangerous poachers to justice.
Zambia wildlife rangers need to be given authority with new leadership.
Whether the killings were encouraged by the actions of the President or whether it’s was – much more likely – a coincidence does not really matter. What matters is that at the moment the rangers who regularly put their lives on the line when they tackle poaching gangs have no adequate leadership anymore. The President needs to act swiftly to give the rangers authority again. Clear leadership and lines of authority needs to be put in place to protect the rangers on the ground and to give them clear authority to act.
If the President is to protect the much needed foreign currency that comes from it’s wildlife tourism then some form of official board needs to be put in place to give the rangers the authority to do their job. At the very least the wildlife ranger service needs to be brought under the authority of the police service until a new board is established.
