Burning rhino horn (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – Over 100kg of suspected rhino horn was discovered in theluggage travelling from Africa to Hanoi on March 14, according to HanoiCustoms.
Duringtheir duty performance, customs and anti-smuggling officials at Noi BaiInternational Airport suspected two briefcases on flight KQ 870 landed theairport from Narobi, the East African country of Kenya, which bore neither recipientsnor weight information.
Checkingthe luggage, the joint forces found that the goods inside the two briefcasesweighed 51.1 kg and 60.84 kg, and suspected them rhino horn.
They sent samples of the goods for further tests.
Statistics show that there are only 25,000 wild rhinos in the world at present,dropping by 95 percent over the last 40 years.
SouthAfrica is home to about 20,000 rhinos or 80 percent of the global total. Up to1,175 rhinos were poached there in 2015, down slightly from the record of 1,215in 2014. However, many experts believe that the real number of poached rhinosis much higher.
Poachingis attributable to the rising demand for rhino horn in some Asian countries,including Vietnam, since many people in these nations believe that rhino hornscan cure illnesses, which is refuted by science.
Conservationistswarned that rhinos will become extinct within the next 10 years if poaching isnot stopped.
The lastJava rhino in Vietnam was killed at Cat Tien National Park in 2010.-VNA
VNA
