.png)
A white rhino was badly injured after poachers sawed off its horn on Aquila Game Reserve in Touws River, around 120 miles North of Cape Town, on August 22, 2011. (Rodger Bosch/AFP/Getty Images)
South Africa will deploy around 600 soldiers along its borders to curb the smuggling of rhinoceros horns out of the country, the government told media agencies.
Justice Minister Jeff Radebe on Sunday told South Africa’s News24 that the move would be done to prevent both smuggling and the proliferation of crime syndicates operating in and around the country.
“In that regard we will be deploying a further four military companies on the Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Lesotho borders as of April 2012 bringing the total number of companies to seven,” Radebe said, according to the news agency.
The task force will include “army engineers who are conducting repairs and maintenance on the Zimbabwe/Mozambique border fence which is approximately” 87 miles long, he added.
Crime syndicates obtain the illegally-poached rhino horns and export them to the Middle East and mostly Asia, where they are in high demand for perceived medicinal benefits. However, scientists and conservation groups say the horns provide virtually no medical benefits.
In 2011, a record 448 rhinos were killed in South Africa by poachers, according to the World Wildlife Fund conservation group. Around 333 South African rhinos were killed by poachers in 2010, which is triple the number killed in 2009.
“It’s not enough to bust the little guy; investigators need to shut down the kingpins organizing these criminal operations,” Dr. Morne du Plessis, the head of WWF-South Africa, said in a statement last month. “Governments in Africa and Asia must work together across borders to stop the illegal trade.”