Mombasa, Kenya - Kenyan authorities have seized at least two tons of illegal Elephant ivory at the Kenyan port of Mombasa destined for Indonesia.
Kenya Revenue Authority Regional Commissioner in charge of the port at the coastal city of Mombasa, Gitau Gitau, said Wednesday customs officers impounded 638 pieces of the elephant tusks late on Tuesday in a container claiming to carry “decoration stones.”
Gitau says the tusks were from Tanzania. The seizure comes over a week after 11 elephants were killed in Kenyan park and their tusks chopped off.
Elephant poaching deaths are on the rise across Africa because of increased demand from Asia - and particularly from China - for ivory trinkets. Poor African villagers can earn vast sums for killing an elephant and taking its tusks. - Sapa-AP