Poaching in Africa

VOA Special Report

At War with Poachers

African elephants struggle against the onslaught of criminal syndicates after their ivory.

The Assault on Gabon’s Forest Elephants

VOA journeys for eight days deep into remote Minkebe National Park, where more than 80 percent of forest elephants have disappeared over the last decade.

Tanzania’s Ivory Queen

Yang Fen Glan allegedly ran an ivory smuggling hub for a decade. Now she faces a 30-year prison sentence in one of Tanzania's biggest poaching busts.

Payoffs and Poverty in Tanzania’s Poaching War

VOA treks through Tanzania’s Selous Game Reserve to show how corruption allows criminal poaching syndicates to thrive, decimating elephant populations in a U.N. World Heritage site.

Graphic Violence

Poacher’s regret

Selous Game Reserve elephants in Tanzania have been devastated by poaching. Here is the true story of a smuggler and former poacher describing in their own words how their illegal — and brutal — hunts worked. | Read the graphic novel

Poacher’s regret

Selous Game Reserve elephants in Tanzania have been devastated by poaching. Here is the true story of a smuggler and former poacher describing in their own words how their illegal — and brutal — hunts worked. | Read the graphic novel

About the project

In this project, journalists from VOA’s Africa Division and Mandarin Service examine poaching in Africa, the multinational criminal syndicates behind it, and the efforts to reduce demand for tusks and horns in Asian countries where they are sold.

Project credits

Reported by Idd Ligongo, Omary Kaseko, Jingxun Li and Tatiana Mossot

Video editing by Betty Ayoub, Tatiana Mossot and Antje Torriero

Design, development and illustrations by Brian Williamson

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