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A6 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 15 OcTOber 2024
Kenya relocates 50 elephants to a larger park. A sign poaching is

under control, officials say

By NICHOLAS KOMU lookout for elephants, and
Associated Press a veterinarian with a tran-
MWEA, Kenya (AP) — As a quilizer gun.
helicopter hovers close to Once an elephant is se-
an elephant, trying to be dated, a ground team of
as steady as possible, an veterinary specialists and
experienced veterinarian rangers rush to find it and
cautiously takes aim. clear thickets to make way
A tranquilizer dart whoosh- for transport crews. Its vitals
es in the air, and within min- are monitored as another
utes the giant mammal sur- group of rangers works on
renders to a deep slumber lifting the massive animal,
as teams of wildlife experts weighing hundreds of ki-
rush to measure its vitals lograms, onto specialized
and ensure it’s doing ok. trucks, to be driven 120 ki-
Kenya is suffering from a lometers (74 miles) to their
problem, albeit a good new home.
one: the elephant popu- Kanga, the wildlife service
lation in the 42-square- director, said the reloca-
kilometer (16-square-mile) tion also aimed at curbing
Mwea National Reserve, human-wildlife conflict.
east of the capital Nairobi, Boniface Mbau, a resident
has flourished from its maxi- of the area, said: “We are
mum capacity of 50 to a Members of the public watch as Kenya Wildlife Service rangers and capture team release five very happy that the gov-
whopping 156, overwhelm- elephants at Aberdare National Park, located in central Kenya, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. ernment has decided to
Associated Press
ing the ecosystem and re- reduce the number of el-
quiring the relocation of thrive,” Kanga said. phants on Monday, saying: A fixed-wing aircraft con- ephants from the area.
about 100 of the largest Experts started relocating “This will go down in history ducted aerial surveillance Due to their high numbers,
land animals. It hosted 49 50 elephants last week to as a record, as it is the big- to track down herds of el- they did not have enough
elephants in 1979. the expansive 780-square- gest exercise of its kind. It is ephants, which naturally food in the reserve, and
According to the Kenya kilometer (301-square-mile) the first time we are witness- move in small families of they ended up invading
Wildlife Service Director Aberdare National Park in ing the translocation of 50 about five. The craft was in our farms.”
General Erustus Kanga, the central Kenya. As of Mon- elephants at a go.” constant communication A second phase to relo-
overpopulation in Mwea day, 44 elephants had The process started at with two helicopters used cate 50 other elephants is
highlighted the success of been moved from Mwea dawn and involved a team to herd and separate the planned, but the date has
conservation efforts over to Aberdare, with six others of more than 100 wildlife elephants to ensure they not been disclosed.
the last three decades. scheduled for Tuesday. specialists, with equipment were relocated with their The project has cost at
“This shows that poaching Tourism Minister Rebecca ranging from specially fit- family units. least 12 million Kenyan shil-
has been low and the el- Miano oversaw the trans- ted trucks to aircraft and Aboard one of the heli- lings ($93,000), the wildlife
ephants have been able to location of five of the ele- cruisers. copters is a spotter, on the agency said.q

Nile basin nations say water-sharing accord has come into force

without Egypt’s backing

By RODNEY MUHUMUZA deposited its ratification testament to our collective generations to come,” the tary of the Nile River. Egypt
Associated Press documents with the Afri- determination to harness Nile Basin Initiative said in fears the dam will have a
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — can Union. the Nile River for the benefit its statement. “This is a mo- devastating effect on wa-
A regional partnership of The accord, which came of all, ensuring its equitable ment to congratulate the ter and irrigation supplies
10 countries says an agree- into force on Sunday, “is a and sustainable use for governments and people downstream unless Ethio-
ment on the equitable use of the Nile riparian coun- pia takes its needs into ac-
of water resources from the tries, and all partners and count. Ethiopia plans to use
Nile River basin has come stakeholders, for their pa- the dam to generate badly
into force despite the no- tience, resolve, and dedi- needed electricity.
table opposition of Egypt. cation to this cause.” The accord’s rights clause
The legal status of the “co- The lack of ratification by states that Nile basin states
operative framework” was Egypt and Sudan desert “shall in their respective
formally confirmed by the nations that have raised territories utilize the water
African Union after South concern over any attempts resources of the Nile River
Sudan joined the treaty, to diminish their shares of system in an equitable and
the Nile Basin Initiative said Nile water means the ac- reasonable manner.”
in a statement Sunday. cord will prove controver- Measuring 6,695 kilometers
Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwan- sial. (4160 miles), the Nile is the
da, Burundi and Tanzania Tensions in the region have longest river in the world,
have ratified the accord. increased, stemming in with one tributary, the
Egypt and Sudan declined A fisherman’s boat sails along the River Nile in Cairo, Egypt, part from Ethiopia’s con- White Nile, starting in South
to sign, while Congo ab- Saturday, Sept. 3, 2011. struction of a $4 billion dam Sudan and the other, the
stained. Kenya has not yet Associated Press on the Blue Nile, a key tribu- Blue Nile, in Ethiopia.q