Joseph Kony: Elephant Poacher

As if the massacres, large-scale mutilations and child kidnapping (for use as child soldiers and sex slaves) weren't bad enough, according to the Enough Project, Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army have now branched out into ivory poaching in the Congo's Garamba National Park as a means to raise funds and obtain arms/supplies.

Whereas it is true that after more than two decades of terrorizing the region, Kony has attained bogeyman status, and villagers tend to ascribe almost all banditry and crime to his group, the Enough Project's reporting is pretty damning. There is also no shortage of precedent for ideologically-founded militias converting to criminality in order to raise funds (i.e. the FARC's transition from Marxist vanguard to narcotics empire, or Hezbollah's deep involvement in narcotics trafficking), so it would not be surprising to see the LRA make a similar transition in order to survive.

Unfortunately for the elephants, the persistent political instability amongst the human governments in central Africa has translated into a lack of the bilateral support necessary for a successful manhunt, which in this case has actually led to the suspension of the hunt for Joseph Kony.

Because when you've spent two decades destroying villages, hacking off limbs, and enslaving children, elephant poaching really isn't much of a step down, morally speaking.