Loaded for Bear: African Parks has disgracefully sent more SA rhinos to repressive Rwanda

Many conservation groups in Africa have a human rights problem. Pointedly, they often stand accused of being more concerned about the plight of Africa’s animals than that of its people. 

This perception has been further entrenched by African Parks’ announcement this week that it has just translocated another 70 white rhinos from South Africa to Rwanda – a sinister state that has been credibly linked to the killing of dissidents on South African soil. 

Read more: Dozens of rhinos rescued and relocated from SA reach Rwanda after two-day journey

When African Parks, a Johannesburg-based NGO, announced in 2021 that it had relocated 30 white rhinos to Rwanda’s Akagera National Park, I criticised it at the time in this publication, noting that those rhinos would be safer than the country’s dissidents. 

Read more: Rwanda’s rhinos are safer than its dissidents

That observation still holds and, if anything, Rwanda under the autocratic rule of Paul Kagame has become even more of a pariah state with its documented support for the M23 rebels in neighbouring DRC. 

The diabolical nature of the Rwandan regime under Kagame has been clinically dissected in veteran journalist Michela Wrong’s troubling 2021 book, Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad. 

Read more: Book Review: Do not disturb the narrative that is the Rwandan economic lion 

“Do Not Disturb” was the sign placed on the room door at the posh Sandton Hotel where Patrick Karegeya, once Rwanda’s head of external intelligence, was found murdered more than a decade ago.

But what’s the murder of a dissident or two or three – or a dozen for that matter – between friends? African Parks sees no issue with shaking hands with the devil if it advances its conservation agenda – which is disturbing. 

“In 2021, African Parks moved 30 southern white rhinos to Akagera National Park. This initial population has increased to 41 animals today. Building on this success, the additional 70 animals will now play a crucial role in ensuring the presence of meta-populations across the continent, presenting opportunities for future range expansion,” African Parks said. 

It’s all about the animals! It’s like African Parks is living in a bubble, completely disconnected from the odious nature of the state it has chosen as a conservation partner. 

But that’s perhaps not surprising, given the NGO’s track record elsewhere in Africa. 

Last month it acknowledged that some of its eco-rangers had committed human rights abuses against the Baka community in Odzala-Kokoua National Park, Republic of Congo, based on the findings of an independent investigation it had commissioned to probe the allegations.

“African Parks acknowledges that, in some incidents, human rights abuses have occurred, and we deeply regret the pain and suffering caused to the victims. There is no place for any form of abuse in the name of conservation,” it said. 

There may be “no place” for this kind of abuse “in the name of conservation”. But if the state you have chosen to host a rhino conservation project is a serial human rights abuser, there is nothing to see here, folks. The rhinos will be fine! 

What will grab the headlines is that this is the largest translocation of its kind. 

African Parks has also been involved in a previous megafauna translocation which was billed as the “largest of its kind”. 

In July 2022, 263 elephants were moved from Liwonde National Park in southern Malawi to Kasungu National Park, which borders Zambia along a frontier which has no fence. African Parks has since distanced itself from this project, but it certainly claimed some of the credit at the time. 

As I reported from the Zambian side of the park in 2024, this misconceived translocation has transformed the landscape into one of fear and loathing for the poor rural people who live there. Human-wildlife conflict is raging there, with a mounting death toll among both people and elephants. 

Read more: How a botched elephant translocation in Malawi unleashed a landscape of fear and loathing

The big critters that have just been moved to Rwanda come from the 2,000-strong herd that African Parks bought in 2023 from rhino tycoon John Hume. Largely because of the efforts of the private sector, South Africa has enough rhinos for “rewilding” efforts elsewhere, which broadly aim to restore wildlife populations to former ranges. 

Rwanda, by the way, is not a former white rhino range state.  

It is indeed the case that much of Africa’s wildlife lies within the borders of states with questionable governance or human rights records. 

I recently covered first-hand the translocation of South African cheetahs to Mozambique, where last year’s elections were hotly disputed, sparking nationwide protests. And let’s face it, the ruling Frelimo party has followed other African liberation movements down the well-trodden path of corruption and misrule. 

Read more: New hope for cheetahs after SA cats moved to Mozambique

But some lines can be drawn in the sand. 

Mountain gorillas, for example, are only found in Rwanda and neighbouring Uganda and the DRC, and so conservation efforts for this species need to be focused in those countries, regardless of the governments in power. 

That is not the case with white rhinos. There are plenty of other African countries where they can be translocated to and protected. 

The Kigali government stands out for the sheer scale of its repression and the regional instability it has unleashed. And Kagame has an instinctive understanding of what is important to the West. The rhino project comes with the prestige he craves, adding another layer of legitimacy to his regime – which does keep the streets of Kigali clean. 

Kagame got 99% of the vote in Rwanda’s 2024 elections and unlike in Mozambique, no one was going to raise an eyebrow about that result, let alone lead a protest in the streets. 

But Rwanda’s rhinos will be just fine. DM