Dozens of white rhinos relocated from South Africa to Rwanda
Seventy southern white rhinos have completed a journey of more than 3,400 kilometres (at least 2,112 miles) by truck and Boeing 747 from South Africa to Rwanda in what has been described as the largest translocation of its kind.
Part of a rewilding initiative, the rhinos were transported in two groups of 35 – first by airliner then by road – from South Africa's Munywana Conservancy to the Akagera National Park in Rwanda, central Africa's largest protected wetland, the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) said on Tuesday.
'The final phase of the 3,400km journey involved the rhino being transported by truck in individual steel crates from Munywana to King Shaka International Airport in Durban,' the RDB said.
'They were then carefully loaded by cranes into a Boeing 747, flown to Kigali International Airport, and finally transported to Akagera National Park by road,' it said.
The development board said the aim was to eventually rewild more than 2,000 rhinos 'to safe, well-managed protected areas across the continent'.The rhinos were released into the Rwandan park after their two-day journey and a veterinary team will monitor their progress in order to 'manage any stress associated with the move and to ensure each rhino adapts well to its new environment'.
Described as 'the first rhino move by air of this scale', the rewilding initiative aims to support population growth for white rhinos and 'secure a new breeding stronghold in Rwanda'.
White rhinos were once abundant across sub-Saharan Africa but their numbers have dramatically fallen due to large-scale poaching and hunting during colonial times.
According to the International Rhino Foundation (IRF), rhino poaching in Africa rose by 4 percent from 2022 to 2023, with at least 586 rhinos poached in 2023.
The southern white rhino, one of two subspecies, is now listed as 'near threatened', with roughly 17,000 individuals remaining, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The northern white rhino is considered critically endangered, with the number of remaining mature adults listed by the IUCN as two at most.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Jazeera
2 days ago
- Al Jazeera
Dozens of white rhinos relocated from South Africa to Rwanda
Seventy southern white rhinos have completed a journey of more than 3,400 kilometres (at least 2,112 miles) by truck and Boeing 747 from South Africa to Rwanda in what has been described as the largest translocation of its kind. Part of a rewilding initiative, the rhinos were transported in two groups of 35 – first by airliner then by road – from South Africa's Munywana Conservancy to the Akagera National Park in Rwanda, central Africa's largest protected wetland, the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) said on Tuesday. 'The final phase of the 3,400km journey involved the rhino being transported by truck in individual steel crates from Munywana to King Shaka International Airport in Durban,' the RDB said. 'They were then carefully loaded by cranes into a Boeing 747, flown to Kigali International Airport, and finally transported to Akagera National Park by road,' it said. The development board said the aim was to eventually rewild more than 2,000 rhinos 'to safe, well-managed protected areas across the continent'.The rhinos were released into the Rwandan park after their two-day journey and a veterinary team will monitor their progress in order to 'manage any stress associated with the move and to ensure each rhino adapts well to its new environment'. Described as 'the first rhino move by air of this scale', the rewilding initiative aims to support population growth for white rhinos and 'secure a new breeding stronghold in Rwanda'. White rhinos were once abundant across sub-Saharan Africa but their numbers have dramatically fallen due to large-scale poaching and hunting during colonial times. According to the International Rhino Foundation (IRF), rhino poaching in Africa rose by 4 percent from 2022 to 2023, with at least 586 rhinos poached in 2023. The southern white rhino, one of two subspecies, is now listed as 'near threatened', with roughly 17,000 individuals remaining, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The northern white rhino is considered critically endangered, with the number of remaining mature adults listed by the IUCN as two at most.
Al Jazeera
04-06-2025
- Al Jazeera
Why ‘Kill the Boer' still echoes: It's not hate, it's hunger for justice
On May 25, Julius Malema, the firebrand leader of South Africa's Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), closed his campaign rally at the Mminara Sports Ground in Kwakwatsi, Free State, as he often does: by singing his favourite anti-apartheid struggle anthem, 'Dubul' ibhunu'. Sung in Xhosa, the song translates to 'Kill the Boer' or 'Kill the farmer' and has long sparked controversy in South Africa and abroad. In recent weeks, the controversy has flared up once again. Just four days earlier, on May 21, during a tense meeting at the White House with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, United States President Donald Trump played a video of Malema and his supporters chanting the song. He claimed it was proof of a 'white genocide' in South Africa and demanded Ramaphosa explain 'that man's' conduct. Yet Malema has been singing this song publicly since 2010. There is no white genocide occurring in South Africa. In fact, in August 2022, the country's Equality Court ruled that the song does not constitute hate speech. By performing it again in Kwakwatsi, Malema was clearly seizing an opportunity to capitalise on Trump's misleading allegations and the global media attention they brought. The disproportionate attention granted to Malema by Trump and his ally Elon Musk obscures a deeper, more urgent reality: millions of Black South Africans, like many across the continent, are crying out for meaningful socioeconomic change and long-overdue justice for the enduring legacies of colonialism and apartheid. They are calling for a modern revolution. Nothing illustrates this more than the EFF's platform. Its policies centre on economic transformation, including land expropriation without compensation and the nationalisation of mines. The party embraces Black nationalism and pan-Africanism, supports Russia in its standoff with NATO, and positions itself in opposition to perceived Western dominance. While the EFF's agenda is bold and Afrocentric, it is hardly new. Decades before the EFF's founding on July 26, 2013, the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC), a radical anti-apartheid movement, championed many of the same ideals. Founded on April 6, 1959, by a group that split from the African National Congress (ANC), the PAC was led by Robert Sobukwe, an intellectual, pan-Africanist, and activist. At the party's launch, Sobukwe famously said, 'The Africanists take the view that there is only one race to which we all belong, and that is the human race.' The PAC advocated for the return of land to Indigenous Africans, asserting that it had been unjustly seized by white settlers. This view – that land dispossession lies at the heart of South Africa's historical injustice – has only recently begun to be addressed by the ANC through the Expropriation Act 13 of 2024, signed into law by Ramaphosa on February 23. South African history is rich with visions for African renewal. Sobukwe's philosophy laid the groundwork for what is often mischaracterised today as 'radical economic transformation'. Steve Biko's Black Consciousness Movement in the 1970s instilled pride and self-determination. In the late 1990s, President Thabo Mbeki championed the African Renaissance – a cultural, scientific, and economic revival aimed at decolonising African minds and institutions. Malema is not a theoretical pioneer, but he is a potent political vessel for the ideas long espoused by Sobukwe, Biko, and Mbeki. Much like elsewhere on the continent, South Africans are revisiting the question of land. It signals a broader resurgence of postcolonial ideology. In 1969, Muammar Gaddafi provided a powerful example. He nationalised Libya's Western-owned oil companies to uplift the impoverished. Over a decade, Gaddafi provided free education, healthcare, and subsidised housing, giving Libyans Africa's highest per capita income. In 2000, Zimbabwe launched its land reform programme to reclaim land taken during colonial rule. In more recent examples, Burkina Faso nationalised the Boungou and Wahgnion gold mines in August 2024 and plans to take over more. Mali reclaimed the Yatela mine in October. In December 2024, Niger seized control of the Somair uranium mine, previously run by French nuclear giant Orano. Across Western and Southern Africa, it is clear: the legacy of colonialism still demands redress. South Africa remains the world's most unequal country. Its Gini coefficient, which measures income inequality, consistently ranks among the highest. Decades after apartheid's fall, systemic racial inequality persists, sustained by disparities in education, employment, and economic access. Trump's astonishing decision on February 7 to sanction South Africa – partly over the Expropriation Act – reveals the West's historical amnesia and indifference. Many Black South Africans are desperate to move beyond the past, but are continually thwarted by a refusal to correct entrenched inequality. Ironically, Trump's intervention may serve to galvanise African governments. His public posturing may appeal to his domestic base, but his tone-deafness will only deepen anti-US sentiment among South Africans. Anti-Western feeling is already rising across the continent, fuelled by historical grievances, neocolonial policies, and the emergence of new global powers like Russia and China. This disillusionment is visible in the rejection of Western-backed institutions and a growing appetite for alternative partnerships. Instead of attempting to shame Ramaphosa on the world stage, Trump would do better to support equitable and lawful reforms. Obsessing over Malema is futile – he is merely the voice of a generation grappling with economic pain and historical betrayal. 'Dubul' ibhunu' resonates among parts of South Africa's Black population not because they are bloodthirsty, but because the promises of liberation remain unfulfilled. Trump would do well to understand this: the revolution in Africa is not over. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
Al Jazeera
03-06-2025
- Al Jazeera
The Rwanda-DRC peace deal must include the voices of the voiceless
More than three decades after the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda plunged the African Great Lakes region into unprecedented turmoil, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continue to struggle in establishing collaborative and neighbourly relations for the collective benefit of their peoples. Following the genocide, in which approximately 800,000 people were killed in just 100 days, hundreds of thousands of Rwandans – including some members of the defeated Rwandan armed forces and militias responsible for the genocide – crossed into the DRC and settled in refugee camps in the country's east, close to the Rwanda border. This became a security concern for the new government in Rwanda. The eastern DRC has not seen peace since. In 1996, the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (AFDL), a coalition of Rwandan, Ugandan, Burundian, and some Congolese dissidents, launched a war against the government of Zaire. The AFDL, primarily a Congolese movement against the Zaire leadership but receiving significant support from the governments of Rwanda and Uganda, ousted President Mobutu Sese Seko and brought Laurent-Desire Kabila to power. However, this change in government and the brutal dismantling of Hutu refugee camps that accompanied it did not usher in meaningful intra-governmental collaboration or an end to Rwanda's security concerns. Over the subsequent decades, Rwanda's government continued to monitor the perpetual conflict in the eastern DRC, citing concerns about dissidents based there. According to United Nations reports, since 2012, this involvement has included direct support for the M23 rebel group waging an uprising against the DRC government. In January 2025, following numerous UN reports confirming Rwanda's support for M23, the DRC government severed diplomatic ties with Rwanda. Subsequently, Rwanda's development partners imposed sanctions on the country, some of its officials, and the Gasabo Gold Refinery, requesting Rwanda to halt support for M23 immediately and withdraw its troops from DRC territory. For the benefit of Rwanda, the DRC, and the entire region, the conflict in the eastern DRC and the decades-old tensions between the two neighbouring governments need to come to an end. As someone deeply invested in delivering democracy and development to all Rwandans, I have long called on the Rwandan government to engage in positive diplomacy to resolve its differences with the DRC government. Rwanda must engage in such diplomacy to overcome its structural constraints to development as a small, landlocked country with limited natural resources. If it resolves its issues with its neighbour, Rwanda could finally achieve true regional integration, participate in lucrative regional supply chains, and become a dependable partner to the wider international community. The peace deal the United States is currently attempting to broker between Rwanda and the DRC could put Kigali on the path to achieving all these gains. However, certain conditions are necessary for any peace deal between the DRC and Rwanda to be effective. As many have suggested, I agree that only a peace deal supported by a bilateral mineral cooperation incentive, guaranteed by a global power like the US – which would help control competition for natural resources – has a chance of succeeding. After all, there is little doubt that illicit trading of minerals has been used to finance the conflict in the eastern DRC. Yet this dark trade is not the fundamental cause of the conflict, and its cessation alone cannot resolve the issues between the two neighbours. The root cause of the eastern DRC conflict is, in fact, a lack of good governance and robust democracy across the African Great Lakes region. Lack of democracy, justice, and respect for human rights, coupled with social and economic exclusion, has caused Rwandans who survived the brutal dismantling of Hutu refugee camps not to return to Rwanda, and others to leave the country to seek refuge in regional states. Some Congolese have also made their way to Rwanda, escaping war, persecution and exclusion. According to the most recent figures by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, there are still more than 200,000 Rwandan refugees in the DRC and close to 83,000 Congolese refugees in Rwanda. There are more Congolese refugees in other regional states, such as Uganda, which hosts more than 600,000 of them. Some of these refugees have been enrolled in armed groups. All this has enabled power holders to abuse their authority and create chaos in the eastern DRC. While illicit trading of minerals has financed the conflict, the fundamental cause of the violence remains the lack of good governance and the inability or unwillingness of authorities to address the core concerns of refugees – the reasons why they sought refuge in either Rwanda or the DRC, and why they do not want to return to their countries of origin. The US can help address this problem and bring sustainable calm to the region by including a condition in the peace deal it is currently brokering that requires the Rwandan and Congolese governments to engage in direct dialogue with their respective opposition – both within and outside their borders – as well as with refugees, and commit to achieving good governance based on political inclusiveness, respect for human rights, and the rule of law. This would enable the voluntary and dignified return of refugees to their countries of origin and could finally put an end to the decades of chaos in the eastern DRC. Rwanda does not even need US pressure to embark on the path of positive diplomacy and dialogue, as a continuous quest for solutions through dialogue is one of the fundamental requirements of its constitution. The Rwandan opposition has already expressed its eagerness to enter into such constructive dialogue with the government. Four years ago, in June 2021, we submitted to the Rwandan government a roadmap for a promising future, officially requesting an inter-Rwandan dialogue to be organised. Similar efforts are under way in the DRC. Opposition figures in the country have recently called for an inter-Congolese dialogue to resolve internal governance issues. It is high time for Rwanda and the DRC to engage in dialogue with their respective refugees and opposition members, both within and outside their countries. This will ensure not only the long-term success of a Washington-brokered peace deal but also lead to trust-building between state officials on both sides and pave the way for true regional cooperation, which will help both nations prosper after finally achieving peace. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
