Recent Killing of Kenyan Rhinos Highlights Need to Get Wildlife Issues Back on the China-Africa Agenda

A 2.5-year-old female Southern white rhino, Elia, tries to run away after being shot a tranquilizer from a helicopter during Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) rhino ear notching exercise for identification at Meru National Park, 350 km from Nairobi, Kenya, on April 5, 2018. Yasuyoshi CHIBA / AFP

The privately-run Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya provided a sobering reminder this week that even though wildlife conservation issues have largely disappeared from the broader China-Africa agenda, the fate of some of Africa’s most endangered animals is becoming increasingly perilous.

Last Friday, heavily-armed poachers snuck into the conservancy, a vast territory that covers 62,000 acres in northern Kenya, to shoot a pair of male white southern rhinos and saw off their horns. The poachers escaped before rangers arrived on the scene.

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by Eric Olander

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