Terrorism is a worldwide threat but with regards to poaching and the various organizations involvement, the threat to African communities is amplified. The business poaching brings in ranges from $8 to $10 billion annually making it the
Three major organizations whose bases reside in Africa are:
Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA):
Led by Joseph Kony and spread across the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and southern Sudan. Between 1987 and 2012 the LRA was “responsible for more than 100,000 deaths” (TRAC, 2017).
Boko Haram:
Nigeria’s militant Islamic group and was designated a terrorist group in 2013. Since 2009 Boko Haram has displaced 2.6 million people, killed 20,000 and in 2014 was named “world’s deadliest terrorist organization” (Rise of Terrorism in Africa, 2015).
Al Shabaab:
Islamist political group linked with al-Qaeda as of 2007. By 2010-2011 controlled much of Southern and Central Somalia. Negatively affected Kenya’s tourism industry due to increased pirate attacks (Elephant League, 2016).
Terrorist organizations are able to hire poachers in the rural African communities due to lack of government influence. With their power the organizations are able to fund themselves such as the LRA whose primary source of income is ivory (CNN, 2014). The organisations take advantage of these communities with the poacher making only 6 percent of the proceeds and the rest to the organisation (Davidson, Ladkani, 24:16).