Slaughter in Africa

Booming international prices for ivory and rhino horn have led to indiscriminate killing on an unprecedented scale. In north-east Zaire; where elephants once trumpeted their shattering call, the forest along one stretch of the Zaire River is eerily silent. Spreading hundreds of square miles around Kisangani (formerly Stanleyville), the capital, is the site of a 1978 wildlife massacre whose consequences are only now becoming fully known. According to a study by conservation organizations, gangs of poachers working in collusion with corrupt government officials dumped an estimated 20 tons of pesticide into animal water-holes. Their motive was to kill off the region’s thousands of elephants and ship their tusks to the lucrative ivory markets of Europe and the Far East. The Kisangani massacre is a sickening reminder that no animals