http://www.gabonews.ga/actualites-reader/items/un-trafiquant-divoire-sous-les-verrous.html
In December 2012, forestry officials, WWF and Conservation Justice with the support of the Woleu-Ntem state counsel, organised a series of operations to fight ivory trafficking. The arrest on the 24th of December, unfortunately ended badly for the conservationists who had in front of them, well organised criminals and a jurist from Conservation Justice was shot and wounded.
After 4 months on the run, on the 14th of April, the trafficker/poacher, Nze Mbira, who is a member of the implicated network and who works with the poacher who opened fired, was arrested. As he had wished shortly after the incident, the jurist from Conservation Justice could finally resume work after two months of convalescence. Today he says “nature has done its work, this is just starting and I am happy that the arrest of those responsible for my accident has started”. The President of Conservation Justice equally explains that “the most important thing first is the recovery of our jurist and we can only congratulate him for supporting the authorities for a case that concerned him in two fronts. It is justice and we hope that the poacher who opened fire on him shall be quickly arrested. I think that, unfortunately, the law is not always applied as it should and this could be a serious threat in many ways”.
Finally, it should be recalled that, the Gabonese law provides maximum penalties of only 6 months in cases of wildlife trafficking as against 3 years in Cameroon and 5 years in Congo.
In the present case, it is evident that the arrested trafficker faces a lot, – ivory trafficking and also complicity in a murder attempt, failure to provide help to a person in danger and escape. Efforts by the government to fight against trafficking are evident and confirmed by present results but they should be strengthened.
We should equally underline that thanks to the support of Conservation Justice, the Judicial Police and the state counsel’s chambers have done new arrests. Thus, Effaga Nkoume, Michel, Zouana Monique and a Haoussa ivory buyer called Amadou Djama, were arrested and sent to the court in Oyem for ivory trafficking. Two ivory tusks were recovered with one buried in the garden of the Haoussa.
