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Tanzania police seize 61 elephant tusks in southern region

Xinhua, January 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

Police in Tanzania's southern region of Mtwara said on Thursday that they have seized 61 elephant tusks and arrested two suspects in connection with the tusks.

Augustine Ollomi, Mtwara regional police commander, said the seizure of the tusks and the arrest of the two suspects were made last week at Lukula village in Nanyumbu district which borders Mozambique.

"Acting on a tip-off from Good Samaritans, police on patrol searched houses belonging to the two suspects and found the 61 tusks hidden inside the houses," said Ollomi.

He said the two suspects have already appeared in court charged with illegal possession of the tusks.

Last week, police in Tanzania's southern highland region of Katavi arrested two Burundians after they were found with 25 pieces of ivory.

The suspects were ferrying the ivory from Katavi to Mwanza region on the shores of Lake Victoria.

The Tanzania Elephant Protection Society, a non-governmental organization dealing in elephant protection and conservation, said in 2013 that about 30 elephants were killed daily in Tanzania, warning that if the situation continued unabated the elephant population in the east African country would be exterminated by 2020. Endi