The veterinarian at the Giza Zoo said that the baby chimpanzee seized at the Cairo Airport last week was smuggled in from a third country. PEGAS is attempting to find out which country it was and the transport mode of entry.
From at least the early 1990s until recently, a well-known Egyptian-Nigerian dual nationality woman trafficker was known to smuggle chimpanzees and gorillas sourced from many African countries to Cairo. Conakry, Guinea and Kano, Nigeria were two of her primary dispatch cities. She was aided by an Egyptian veterinarian and her daughters. See “Africa’s Lost Apes” on our Publications page for more details. Is one or both of these trafficking routes still operating?
The baby chimpanzee seized in the Cairo Airport was put into a cold, hard cell in the Giza Zoo. (Photo: Mohammed And Elhammid)
Both Ethiopian Airlines and Egyptair fly Kano-Cairo via a neighboring country, and both airlines have been implicated in illegal wildlife transport in the past.
Project to End Great Ape Slavery (PEGAS) 