Africa's prosecutors vow to tackle cyber and wildlife crimes

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Some of the ivory recovered in Samburu. [Courtesy]

Prosecutors from eleven African countries have vowed to crack down on proceeds of crime and tackle money-laundering cases alongside emerging transnational crimes.

The network of prosecutors from Eastern and Southern African countries is now expected to strengthen regional cooperation to strip international wildlife traffickers of their ill-gotten wealth as well as disrupt networks.

The commitments came at the close of the East Africa Association of Prosecutors’ (EAAP) technical committee meeting and the regional prosecutors’ high-level consultations in Nairobi.

Gitonga Murang’a, EAAP Secretariat Coordinator said the association will set up a regional prosecutor's exchange programme to enhance capacity-building on various thematic prosecutorial areas.

“We will intensify training on asset recovery, cybercrime, and wildlife crime in each member country to ensure that all the prosecutors involved are speaking with one voice and sending the same message to poachers and other perpetrators of these crimes in the region that wildlife crime won’t pay,” Murang’a said.

Besides setting up a regional prosecutor's exchange programme to enhance capacity building on various thematic prosecutorial areas, he added that the association will also stimulate international cooperation amongst the member states.

The association has been conducting inter-agency training over the past five years to create momentum and the push success in the region. 

Katto Wambua, Director of Wildlife Law and Justice at Space for Giants, said that the training has also led to tougher sentences on wildlife laws in the region.

“The training has improved the standards of prosecution of wildlife and environmental crimes, and these cases are treated as serious transnational organised crimes,” he said.

The prosecutors are drawn from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.