Malawi turns to British troops in poaching war

Liwonde, Malawi | AFP | Under a scorching sun, a team of British soldiers and Malawian rangers sheltered under a tree ready to pounce on their prey: poachers.

The combined force, armed with rifles and handcuffs, did not encounter any poachers as it patrolled the 530 square kilometre (240 square mile) Liwonde national park in Malawi’s south.

But the presence of the highly-trained and well-equipped British forces was reassuring for the rangers who routinely confront gangs of poachers armed with Kalashnikovs.

Liwonde, which borders Mozambique, is Malawi’s leading game reserve and is home to the southern African country’s largest elephant and rhino populations.

The seven British soldiers are there to train 35 of Malawi’s anti-poaching rangers.

Prince Harry is the public face of the project that began in 2016 and earlier this year he visited the park to oversee the relocation of over 300 elephants to the Nkhotakota game park in central Malawi.

– ‘A poaching crisis’ –

“We were in a poaching crisis in 2015 in this park… but the situation has now been contained,” said Bright Kumchedwa, the director of Malawi’s parks and wildlife department.

And although the fight against the illicit wildlife trade is far from over — poaching halved the country’s elephant population from 4,000 in the 1980s to 2,000 in 2015 — gains are being made.

“The good news is that we have had only one case of a rhino being poached in two years in this park,” Kumchedwa told AFP.

“(British forces) are transferring military skills to Malawian rangers to use in conservation… the soldiers are adding value to the training of rangers.”

Michael Geldard, the British army colonel in charge of the training, described the campaign against poachers as “a game of cat and mouse with danger”.

“We are here to train rangers how to protect themselves from wild animals and not necessarily to shoot poachers,” said Geldard, who is also Britain’s defence attache to several African countries.

“We are training them how to track down poachers and defend themselves from animals.”

Kingsley Kachoka, a Malawian who is a sergeant in the British army, told AFP he was delighted to be home “to help my country to deal with poachers”.

“I hope there will be a change because we are covering more ground in counter-poaching skills.”