Tanzania: Lorries Crisis Talks Ongoing – Minister

Dar es Salaam — The government said yesterday that discussions were in progress to end the stalemate involving hundreds of lorries from Tanzania that had been seized in Zambia over illegal logging.

However, lorry owners said yesterday that they were immediately suspending the transportation of cargo to the DRC via Zambia until their vehicles and drivers are released.

Transporters say about 400 Tanzanian registered lorries had been seized in Zambia since June over illegal logging claims. In 2016, Zambia banned the felling and transporting of a tree known locally as mukula – Pterocarpus chrysothrix, a relative of rosewood – in a bid to curb its rapid loss fuelled by growing demand in Asia.

Authorities in Zambia say the lorry drivers get the logs in their country (Zambia) but they use falsified documents to claim that they [the logs] had been obtained in the DRC.

But the Minister for Industry and Trade, Prof Kitila Mkumbo, told The Citizen that the government was aware about the issue, and that discussions were at an advanced stage,

“As the minister for Trade, I contacted my Zambian counterpart last week, and he promised that he would give me feedback on the matter before close of business today (yesterday),” he said.

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