By William Madouk
Wildlife traffickers and poachers in the country have been warned to desist from the practices or face stringent punitive actions.
President Salva Kiir on Tuesday, put the enemies of Wildlife on notice, saying severe punishment will be meted to individuals engaging in the illicit business.
“Let me declare, if any individual is found engaging in poaching or wildlife trafficking in South Sudan, he will face the full force of the law,” Kiir said.
The head of the state was speaking during the launching of wildlife census, yesterday.
He called on the national ministry of wildlife and conservation with partners to train and equip wildlife wardens to combat poaching and trafficking of flora and fauna across the country
“I call the security sector, especially the ministry of wildlife and its partners to prioritize training and equipping wildlife wardens to combat poaching and wildlife trafficking and protect animals,” he noted.
According to president, as South Sudan continues to develop, his administration remains “committed to transforming the wildlife sector into a sustainable tourism industry.”
Based on the first ever national wildlife census, South Sudan is a home to approximately 5.8 million wildlife, with splendid flora and fauna.
On similar development, the vice president for economic cluster, Dr. Jame Wani Igga, who seems to be reading from the same book said poaching robs the country of millions of US Dollars.
“We are talking of wildlife worth millions of dollars and with this marketing many tourists will pour into South Sudan,”
However, there are challenges facing wildlife, the wildlife particularly that must be reckon with, Dr. Igga added.
“Number one is poaching especially, valuable parts of the animals, loss of wildlife species to the bush meat,” he stressed.
VP. Igga said, awareness creation is important to allow people desist from killing animals for meat.
He also called for welfare improvement and training of wildlife wardens.
Recently, the council of ministries also warned that appetite for bush meat is endangering wildlife population.
This came after the minister of Wildlife, conservation and Tourism, Rizik Zakaria made presentation on wildlife population census survey in Boma, Badingilo and Jonglei landscape.
Micheal Makuei, minister information and government spokesman said, “This is to inform the public that killing of wildlife is prohibited by law.”
“And if you are arrested or caught killing a wildlife or carrying parts of wildlife, you will be arrested, you will be brought to the books because this is a violation of the law,” he added.