“The illegal trade in wild animals is entering a new phase,” complains an animal rights activist. In Congo, criminals demand large ransoms after abducting chimpanzees from their sanctuary.
The kidnapping of people for ransom is becoming increasingly prevalent in Africa – whether in Nigeria, Kenya or South Africa. The fact that animals are kidnapped for the same reason has not yet been reported from the animal-rich continent. But even this taboo seems to have been broken now. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, strangers recently stole three chimpanzee children from a sanctuary for abused great apes at night and are demanding a six-figure sum from the owners of the primate sanctuary. The “world’s first such case,” sighs Adams Cassinga, director of the Congolese animal protection organization “ConservCongo”: “The illegal trade in wild animals is entering a new phase.”
The Belgian Roxane Chantereau and her French husband Franck have been running the “Jeunes Animaux Confisqués au Katanga” (Jack) center in the south-eastern Congolese provincial capital of Lubumbashi for 16 years. Around 40 chimpanzees and more than 64 other monkeys were able to feel safe there. Until one morning in the middle of this month, Roxane woke up to her phone beeping repeatedly.
A video was received showing the chimpanzee children César, Hussein and Munga in an untidy shed. On a ledge against the wall, five-year-old Munga stood with her arms tied above her head – as if she had been crucified. Her two younger fellow sufferers apathetically climbed over the junk that was scattered on the floor. The kidnappers threatened that if the six-figure ransom was not paid immediately, the three chimpanzee children would be decapitated and their heads sent to Roxane. “We haven’t slept since then,” the Belgian complains to US broadcaster CNN.
Under no circumstances would they give in to the criminals’ demands, explains her husband Franck. Not least because they didn’t have that much money. They also didn’t want to set a precedent. “Otherwise they’ll be back in two months,” says Franck. “And how can we be sure that they really didn’t do anything to the three primate children?” The Congolese government also urgently advised against complying with the demands.
A live baby chimpanzee can fetch well over $10,000 on the black market. The global trade in the primates closest to humans – like the illegal wildlife trade in general – is becoming ever larger: its value is estimated at more than 20 billion euros a year. In order to capture a chimpanzee child in the wild, its ten-strong clan must be killed. She would never allow her youngest family member to be kidnapped.
Fewer and fewer chimpanzees
While more than a million chimpanzees lived in Africa at the beginning of the last century, their number today is estimated at not much more than 150,000. This is another reason why Franck Chantereau is convinced that the kidnapping case will set a precedent in his monkey asylum. “There are fewer and fewer chimpanzees in the forests,” says the primate keeper. “Stealing them from sanctuaries like ours is a lot easier.”
