UN endangered species organization accuses Zimbabwean security forces of wildlife poaching

Zimbabwean security forces accused of poaching

HARARE, Zimbabwe — The leader of a U.N. program to protect endangered species says Zimbabwean security forces are spearheading the poaching of elephants and rhinos in the troubled country.

At Thursday’s news conference, Willem Wijnstekers, secretary-general of the U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, said the Zimbabwe government will be brought before his organization’s board to explain the poaching. He said an investigation found evidence that 200 rhinos had been poached.

Zimbabwe’s minister of Environment and Natural Resources Management, Francis Nhema, says he has been briefed by police about security forces being involved in poaching. Nhema says Zimbabwe is asking Wijnstekers’s organization, known as CITES, for help.