Following the increasing killing of game animals,the Criminal Investigations Directorate – CID has dispatched a team of detectives to hunt for poachers in the Murchison falls National Park. A team of 13 detectives commanded by Assistant Commissioner of Police – ACP Francis Olugu is hunting for poachers. ACP Olugu is also the head of CID’s general crimes desk.
A number of animals have reportedly been poached during the covid-19 lockdown. CID and Uganda Wildlife Authority –UWA recorded 768 cases of poaching and wildlife trafficking in 2019 which is an 18.5 percent increase compared to 648 registered in 2018. UWA and CID attributed the increase in number of poaching and wildlife trafficking cases to enormous foot and motorised patrols.
The team of detectives is reportedly accompanied by armed soldiers, game rangers and police officers purposely to provide security for the investigators. This is due to the fact that the poachers are armed with guns, especially in Nwoya and Oyam.
Recently, the Chief Magistrate’s court in Kabale sentenced a poacher to 11 years in prison for killing one of the country’s rare silverback mountain gorilla. Rafiki , a silverback of the famous Nkuringo group was last month found dead under mysterious circumstances and investigations later indicated that the rare gorilla has sustained an injury by a sharp object that penetrated its left upper part of the abdomen up to the internal organs.
Consequently, four poachers were arrested by Uganda Wildlife Authority rangers in the Southern Sector of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.