- The tusks, confiscated from traffickers, were destroyed in Abuja on January 9, 2024
The Nigerian Government recently destroyed 2.5 tons of seized elephant tusks valued at over $11.2 million (N9.9 billion).
This initiative aims to protect the dwindling elephant population by sending a strong message against illegal wildlife trafficking. The tusks, confiscated from traffickers, were destroyed in Abuja on January 9, 2024.
Iziaq Salako, the country’s environment minister, highlighted the motive behind this action: to firmly combat the illegal wildlife trade. The shattered ivory will be pulverized into a powder and used to build a monument honoring elephants and Nigeria’s commitment to their conservation.
Nigeria has unfortunately become a hub for the illegal trade in African animal parts, with Asia being a primary market. In a similar move in October, nearly four tons of seized pangolin scales were publicly burnt. Despite the long-standing ban on international ivory commerce, tens of thousands of elephants are killed annually for their tusks.
This recent destruction involved one of Nigeria’s largest seizures, weighing almost 2.5 tonnes, some of which had been fashioned into saleable artworks. Alarmingly, Africa’s elephant population has drastically declined from over 1.3 million in the 1970s to less than 500,000 today, with Nigeria holding as few as 400 elephants.
Tragically, human-elephant conflicts, sometimes resulting in the killing of elephants, persist, exemplified by a viral video in December showing soldiers shooting two elephants that had wandered onto farmland. Nigerian officials have since launched an investigation into this incident.
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