Shooting at rangers in Kruger Park leads police to poachers' hideout
In sector Xipala Block on the territory Kruger National Park, a gunfight broke out between park rangers and a group of five armed poachers. During the shootout, one of the attackers, an 18-year-old man, was wounded in the leg and was captured by law enforcement officers, while four other hunters managed to escape. Near the scene of the shooting, patrol officers found a machete-wielded buffalo carcass worth about 80,000 rand.
The injured offender was taken to the hospital under escort and charged with attempted murder of rangers and illegal hunting. Investigative police units of the Vhembe District district immediately launched an operation to search for the fugitives, checking the nearest settlements.
During morning raids in the villages of Nkotswi and Bennde, security forces detained three men aged between 21 and 30, seizing a hunting rifle without permits. They also took into custody a 36-year-old illegal migrant from Zimbabwean, in whose possession they found a supply of slaughtered buffalo meat with an estimated value of two thousand rand. All those detained will appear in court in the near future.
From the editor
It caught my eye that those poachers were engaged in a gunfight with the rangers, but they were chopping up the buffalo with a machete. Was this - sound masking or a banal saving of ammunition? It turns out that the buffalo is such a small threat (and a big reward) for those obviously hungry guys to take such a risk.
Context
The northern part of Kruger National Park in the Punda Maria district borders densely populated rural communities in limpopo province, where dozens of seasonal watercourses crisscross the outer perimeter of the reserve. This remote region is characterized by dense mopane and sandy veld, making it difficult to both patrol the park's boundaries and detect illegal trails.