Ivory Coast seizes 150kg of smuggled elephant tusks

ABIDJAN: About 150 kilogrammes of elephant tusks coming from Nigeria have been seized in Ivory Coast in the biggest such haul in a decade, the customs department said on Friday.

The seizure was made in the border town of Bonoua near Ghana, through which the tusks were transported from Nigeria, an official said.

"Twenty-four elephant tusks weighing 150 kg were hidden in a bus coming from Nigeria," an Ivorian official said.

He said Wednesday's seizure was "the biggest in ten years" in Ivory Coast.



More than 35,000 elephants are slaughtered each year on the African continent from an approximate population of more than 450,000 in the wild.