It is very hard for the dark world to run out of surprises. As a team of soldiers and the Uganda Police Force stopped a van for routine inspection at a checkpoint in Kikorongo, Kasese, they encountered something unusual.
Their curious gaze landed on huge wooden boxes with gaping holes the size of human eyes. There were movements inside the box, indicating that the occupants were mobile. This attracted some curiosity. Are there any living beings inside the boxes? Who was inside the boxes?
Further inspection revealed that the boxes had 22 black and white monkeys as well as L-Hoest’s monkeys, teetering on the brink of life and death. Sadly, nine monkeys had suffocated and died in transit. This was not all. With curiosity heightened, the team stumbled upon a plastic sack and “discovered” seven Gaboon vipers, one of the world’s most venomous snakes.
The suspected traffickers also had jackfruit, which they used to feed the unfortunate monkeys. In addition, they had termites, which are food for the Gaboon vipers.
On June 17, 2024, the then police spokesperson, Fred Enanga, named the suspects as Frederick Lubega, a Makerere University student, and Osborne Akunda, a driver.
He also says that the suspected traffickers had loaded the boxes containing the monkeys and a sack of snakes on a van, a Super Custom.
According to UWA’s preliminary investigations, Lubega and Ankunda had captured the animals in Mityana, and they were on their way to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo). The two suspects planned to connect with other suspected traffickers at Kinyamaseke in Kasese, according to the Uganda Wildlife Association (UWA).
“It is strange that the suspected traffickers were taking the animals to DR Congo,” Pontius Ezuma, the Chief Warden of Queen Elizabeth Conservation Area, told Wild New Channel on June 24, 2024. “What is expected is for wildlife traffickers to bring animals from the DR Congo into Uganda. But now the trafficking was taking the reverse order,” says Ezuma.
UWA also reports that charges of possessing wildlife without a permit, killing wildlife, and transferring protected wildlife species have placed Lubega and Ankunda on remand pending prosecution.
