The United States has targeted eight people from the Democratic Republic of Congo with visa restrictions for their suspected role in illegal wildlife or timber trafficking, the State Department said, IgbereTV reports.
The central African nation is home to an abundance of wildlife, including pangolins, elephants, chimpanzees and gorillas, increasingly threatened by poaching and trafficking, often to Asia and the Middle East.
The State Department said the eight Congolese nationals had been sanctioned under Washington’s Immigration and Nationality Act, which means they could be barred entry to the United States.
The act “targets wildlife and timber traffickers who are believed to be, or have been, complicit in or involved in trafficking in wildlife, wildlife parts, or products”, it said in a statement Monday
