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10 women arrested in Juba for smuggling 200-kg bush meat

Author: Baria Johnson | Published: January 23, 2025

The National Ministry of Wildlife said 10 women were arrested in Juba on Wednesday after being found in possession of 200 kilograms of bush meat smuggled from Jonglei State.

Lt. Gen. Khamis Adiang, Director General of Wildlife said the arrest was made after wildlife officers suspected a land cruiser Toyota to be carrying the animal remains.

He stated that the Toyota Landcruiser vehicle was detained and searched at the ministry headquarters and 200 kg of bush meat were discovered.

“A vehicle loaded with meat came and it was arrested by our people here in Juba. The vehicle was brought to the headquarters and searched, we found a lot of meat not less than 200kg of bush meat,” he said in an interview with Eye Radio.

General Khamis stressed that women are now being employed to smuggle wildlife products because they are not thoroughly searched at checkpoints.

He said the ministry is currently planning to open a police case into the matter.

“People involved in this smuggling were ladies unfortunately but this is a method we are used to they normally employ ladies to transport this because they can be excused.”

“We are on the procedures of now opening a police case and then the law will take its cost. It was inside Juba just after the Juba Bride and the vehicle was coming from Jongeli state.”

General Adiang added that the ban on checkpoints has affected the work of the ministry and provided an opportunity for the smuggling of bush meat.

He emphasized that the government should ensure that they keep their interception points, which do not demand money from vehicles and travelers.

“Our monitoring of transportation of wildfire products into the capital Juba was somehow affected by the closure of checkpoints,” he said.

“I think the checkpoints meant by the order are for those that take money, but in our case we do not take money. We check the vehicle whether it has wildlife products if not then it just proceed.”

He urged South Sudanese to refrain from poaching wildlife and trading in bush meat.

“We have been affected and now Juba is full of bush meat especially coming from Jongeli state. We made an experiment to establish a date base in Bor.”

“In two months 7,500 animals have been killed and if we go with the same trend we will not find a single animal after 5 years or ten years. I am urging people to at least to fight this.”

 

 

 

 

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