Put squeeze on Mozambique to stop slaughter of elephants

Lisa Johnston / 1 day ago

In the dead of night a group of men hack the meat from a corpse using rusted machetes and pocket knives. Together they’re like a machine systematically tearing flesh from bone, slashing and sawing with blunted instruments. By morning all that’s left for the vultures are stalactites of flesh that cling stubbornly to the ribcage, which gapes like a maw where the heart and lifeblood of the elephant once pulsed

The slaughter is documented in a series of grisly photos that emerged from the northern Mozambican game reserves of Quirimbas National Park and Niassa National Reserve in October this year. They highlight the routine slaughter of elephants in that area – on a scale that is now being referred to as “industrialised”.

Estacios Valoi of the Oxpeckers Centre for Investigative Journalism took the images and reported that within 48 hours five elephants had been massacred in the Quirimbas National Park. Their tusks were the first thing to go, axed from the skull and immediately delivered to clients. In this instance the villagers also took the meat, but often the carcases are simply left to rot. In a year long investigation, started in November last year and supported by photographic and documentary evidence, Oxpecker’s Estacios Valoi revealed how a number of administrative, judicial and tax authorities in Cabo Delgado and Niassa provinces were complicit with the poaching syndicates, enabling poachers to gain access to weapons and protected areas and turning a blind eye to ivory and other illegal goods being smuggled through Mozambican ports, airports and borders.

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