The Mozambican police put out
of operation three gangs of
poachers last weekend,
according to a report in
Wednesday’s issue of the
independent newssheet 'Mediafax'. The poachers had been
operating in the Limpopo
National Park, in the southern
province of Gaza, and in South
Africa’s Kruger National Park. These successes are attributed
to the work of the recently
created police unit for the
protection of natural resources
and the environment, and to
coordination between the police, other government
institutions and the authorities
of neighbouring countries. According to a source in the
National Administration of
Conservation Areas (ANAC),
cited by 'Mediafax', the
poaching gangs clashed with
the police on three successive days – Friday, Saturday and
Sunday - inside the Limpopo
National Park. The first group, consisting of
four poachers, was intercepted
on Friday night at a police
checkpoint. Although the police
waved the vehicle down,
ordering it to stop, the poachers made a run for it, and
drove through thecheckpoint. The police radioed ahead to the
next checkpoint. Once again the
poachers ignored the order to
stop, but this time the police
opened fire. One of the
poachers was hit, but managed to survive. On searching the vehicle, the
police found a firearm of a type
ussually used by poachers. On Saturday a group of seven
poachers was ambushed by a
combined force of Mozambican and
South African police. Three of
the poachers were subdued and arrested, but
the other four managed to get awau. In another operation on Sunday,
also by the police forces
of the two countries, two
poachers were arrested, while another escaped. In what seems to be yet another separate
incident, reported by the
Maputo daily 'Noticias', without
giving the exact date, a 34 year
old poacher, Winasse
Muthevui was injured fatally after a shoot-out with the
police inside the Limpopo
National Park. An accomplice
escaped. Jeremias Langa, the press
officer in the Gaza Provincia
Police Command, said Muthevui
was taken tothe Chokwe Rural
Hospital, where he passed away. Before he died, he confessed
that he owned the two guns the
police seized at the scene, and
that he and his accomplice had
been returning from the Kruger
Park where they had gone to hunt rhinoceros. The report did
not say whether they had
succeeded in killing any rhinos.
