Botswana sends first of 300 elephants to Angola
Copyright 2001 Reuters
September 6, 2001
JOHANNESBURG - The first planeload of elephants donated by Botswana were sent to Angola this week, as part of a controversial project to reintroduce wildlife to the war-ravaged country.
The Kissama Foundation, a private group which has been mandated to rehabilitate Angola's national parks, said that two family groups of four elephants each were flown in an Ilyushin cargo plane to the Quicama National Park in Angola.
They left the Louis Trichard airbase in northern South Africa, after being driven across the border from Botswana.
The four bulls and four cows are the first elephants out of a total 300 which Botswana has promised to give to Angola - a country at civil war since independence from Portugal in 1975.