Inside the DRC’s great ape trade
When he is not moonlighting as a taxi driver running visitors to and from the Ndjili International Airport in Kinshasa, Xavier Kasungu* is a fish and bushmeat trader operating from a stall outside his home in an overcrowded and impoverished sub-district of the sprawling capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
As he weaves the 1970s Mercedes Benz through the traffic of unruly minibus drivers and motorcycle riders, he talks about himself, his family and why he has to supplement his meagre salary as a taxi driver by trading in bushmeat.
Nothing in his politeness fits the cut-throat impression I created from discussions with a friend who recommended Kasungu as the person who could talk knowledgeably and in confidence about the illegal bushmeat and live animal trade in Kinshasa.
By the time we got to his home, I had learnt that he is a trained school teacher who abandoned the profession in 1999 to join a government-allied militia which battled Rwandan and Ugandan troops in the Ituri and Mbuji-Mayi sectors of what came to be known as the “Eastern Front’ during the 1998-2002 Congo War.
But soon after entering his house, he put me through a very thorough body search that ended with all my gadgets piled up on the table in front of us to make sure I was not recording our discussion.
His para-military career ended in September 2001 amid a hail of AK-47 bullets that shattered his left leg and perforated his lower abdomen.
After 11 months of surgery, he got back on his feet and had just resigned himself to life in poverty when a friend contacted him seeking a quick favour that changed his life.
“He needed someone to go the port and pick up a consignment that was coming to Kinshasa by river boat.
“I went there, took the load and delivered it to an address in Gombe [an affluent suburban district of Kinshasa].
“It was only when they opened to check the goods that I realised I had delivered a load of gorilla and bonobo bushmeat.”
“The consignment also contained two gorilla heads, four gorilla hands and four gorilla feet, two bonobo feet and a few elephant tails.
“I was paid US$50 for my part and left. “Within two days, I got another call from the same friend, and this time it led to me to where I am today,” Kasungu explained.
He received more calls and started running errands which included calling poachers, mainly in the Équateur Province, to coordinate the supply and delivery of meat, body parts and as well as live baby gorillas, chimpanzees, vervet monkeys, mandrills and bonobos to Kinshasa.
Kasungu graduated from being a runner for the army-linked great ape dealing syndicate and went on to set himself up as one of the biggest and most discreet great ape bushmeat and body parts traders of Kinshasa.
“After a year running great ape meat and body parts for the army syndicates around Kinshasa, I linked up with the big buyers in Kinshasa and beyond. So I set up my own supply lines and markets in Dubai, Switzerland, Nigeria and China which take both meat and live gorilla, bonobo, chimpanzee, mandrill and vervet monkey babies.
“The markets in Dubai and China are mainly zoos seeking live apes for wealthy individuals who keep them as pets.
My Nigerian customers are traditional healers who use chimp, bonobo and gorilla
The trade in live baby primates is a by-product of the roaring illegal bushmeat trade, whose epicentre remains Kinshasa.
“Retailing at an average of US$1.50 per kilogramme, gorilla meat is much cheaper than its beef and chicken alternatives, which sell for as much as $5 per kilogramme around Kinshasa.
“Despite the opulence you see around, most people in Kinshasa are poor and cannot afford expensive foods. Secondly, they grew up in a culture and society that does not consider killing wild animals for food an offence. body parts like hands and feet to enhance the power of magic portions. Customers in Switzerland take only bushmeat,” he said.
The trade in live baby primates is a byproduct of the roaring illegal bushmeat trade, whose epicentre remains Kinshasa.
“Retailing at an average of US$1.50 per kilogramme, gorilla meat is much cheaper than its beef and chicken alternatives, which sell for as much as $5 per kilogramme around Kinshasa.
“Despite the opulence you see around, most people in Kinshasa are poor and cannot afford expensive foods. Secondly, they grew up in a culture and society that does not consider killing wild animals for food an offence.
“The capture of live baby apes started around 2004 when bushmeat poachers realised there was money to be made from killing mother apes for meat and body parts, and even more from selling their live babies to the many Kinshasa-based syndicates with links to zoo and pet shop operators in Dubai or China.
“By targeting mother apes with babies, poachers reap that double bonus,” he said.
From Congo Basin areas like Mbandaka in Équateur Province (gorillas) and the Mayombe Forest in Kongo Central Province (chimpanzees and bonobos) bushmeat, body parts and live baby apes are transported by air, water and road to storage and distribution points in Kinshasa.
Once in Kinshasa, meat meant for local consumption is taken to distribution points around the city while export-bound consignments are repackaged and frozen before being loaded on aircraft to destinations that include Switzerland, Belgium and France where the majority of the Congolese diaspora lives.
Read the rest of the story on: standard.co.zw
* Not his real name.
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This investigation by Oscar Nkala, an associate at Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism, was supported by the Center for Advanced Defense Studies.