At least 26 great apes illegally removed from the Democratic Republic of Congo have been seized in Zimbabwe, where four suspected traffickers have been arrested, authorities in both countries said Friday as they considered repatriating the primates.

DR Congo's environment minister Claude Nyamugabo Bazibuhe also announced a large seizure of pangolin scales from the country's northeast.

DRC is one of the world's last refuges for endangered great apes, such as eastern lowland gorillas and mountain gorillas, while the pangolin is considered the most-trafficked animal on the planet for its scales which are prized in traditional Chinese medicine.

Two Congolese nationals, a Malawian and a Zambian were arrested on Wednesday during a routine border post check as they entered Zimbabwe with the apes in a truck, Tinashe Farawo, spokesman for the Zimbabwean Parks and Wildlife Authority (ZimParks) told AFP.

Farawo said the primates were being cared for by Zimbabwe officials until they could be returned to DRC.

Nyamugabo Bazibuhe said in a statement that 32 live chimpanzees were recently taken from the Haut-Katanga province in southeastern DRC, on the border with Zambia.

Traffickers used fake documents to take them out of DRC and were destined for South Africa, he said.

"The investigation continues... to identify exactly the specimens" seized in Zimbabwe "before considering their repatriation," the minister said.

"All great apes (gorillas, bonobos and chimpanzees) and pangolins are fully protected," he added.

On Wednesday, 56 kilogrammes (125 pounds) of pangolin scales were recovered from a private residence as they were being prepared for export, DRC's environment minister announced.

They were taken from the Garamba natural reserve, on the border with South Sudan and Uganda.

The scales are used for the treatment of various diseases such as arthritis, ulcers and tumours, despite a lack of scientific proof.

The small animals are thought by some scientists to be the possible host of the novel coronavirus.

They are the most trafficked mammals in the world and seizures of their scales increased tenfold between 2014 and 2018, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The world has lost more than two-thirds of its wild animal populations in less than 50 years, mainly due to human activity, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said Thursday in a hard-hitting report.

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World wildlife plummets more than two-thirds in 50 years: index
Paris (AFP) Sept 9, 2020
Global animal, bird and fish populations have plummeted more than two-thirds in less than 50 years due to rampant over-consumption, experts said Thursday in a stark warning to save nature in order to save ourselves. Human activity has severely degraded three quarters of all land and 40 percent of Earth's oceans, and our quickening destruction of nature is likely to have untold consequences on our health and livelihoods. The Living Planet Index, which tracks more than 4,000 species of vertebrate ... read more