Warring factions in South Sudan have slaughtered, poached and eaten "alarming" numbers of endangered wildlife, devastating one of Africa's largest migrations, conservationists warned Wednesday.

 

Elephants are being slaughtered for their tusks, while giraffe and antelope have been mowed down with machine guns for meat to feed the tens of thousands of soldiers and rebels. Since war broke out again in South Sudan in December last year, almost a third of elephants fitted by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) with satellite monitoring collars are believed to have been poached.

 

Government and rebel troops, are pushing elephants to the brink of extinction in the young nation, said Paul Elkan from WCS, and the 30 percent loss of collared elephants is "indicative" of the wider slaughter.

 

The government has seized 65 tusks from traffickers this year -- the deaths of at least 33 elephants -- as well as leopard skins and piles of antelope bush meat.

 

South Sudan had some 80,000 elephants in the 1970s, and many feared they had been wiped out almost entirely by the 1983-2005 war, but WCS surveys found as many as 2,500 had survived against the odds, many living in the vast Sudd swamp, the largest wetland in Africa.

 

Eastern Jonglei state is home to giant herds of antelope -- including tiang, white-eared kob and reedbuck -- as well as giraffe, lion, cheetah and vast bird populations.

 

But as well as shooting animals to feed troops, some commanders are selling bush meat commercially, killing thousands of the animals for profit on an industrial scale.

 

Wildlife was seen as a key resource for South Sudan in trying to diversify from what before the war was its almost total dependence on oil.

 

"The elephants and other wildlife species have huge potential to contribute to the future prosperity of South Sudan, but only if these magnificent animals survive," Elkan said.

 

 

PHOTO: Warring factions in South Sudan have slaughtered, poached and eaten "alarming" numbers of endangered wildlife, devastating one of Africa's largest migrations, conservationists warned.

CREDIT: AFP Photo/Issouf Sanogo.