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| Uganda is being increasingly used as a transit country by ivory poachers |
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Ugandan
officials have seized some two tonnes (4,600lb) of ivory - one of the country's
biggest such hauls for many years.
The Uganda
Wildlife Association (UWA) has said the 832 pieces of ivory could be worth up
to $6.7m but other estimates put the value lower.
Experts say
some of the ivory is believed to have come from elephants poached outside
Uganda.
There is a
huge demand for African ivory in Asia for use in ornaments.
The ivory
was apparently heading for the Kenyan port of Mombasa.
Some of the
tusks had been broken up and covered with plastic bottles in crates labelled as
material to be recycled.
The UWA
says that Uganda is increasingly being used as a transit country by poachers
who kill elephants in states such as South Sudan or the Democratic Republic of
Congo.
Uganda is
believed to have about 5,000 elephants and this haul would represent the tusks
from about 400 animals.
Last week,
some four tonnes of ivory was found in Mombasa after coming from Uganda.
According
to the UWA, the rate of elephant poaching is relatively low in Uganda, with an
estimated 20 elephants killed for their ivory across the country in 2010.
After a
sharp fall in the number of elephants in Africa, the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) banned the trade in ivory in
1989
But in
recent years poaching has increased across sub-Saharan Africa with criminal
gangs slaughtering elephants for ivory markets in Asia.
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