UN: Ivory, charcoal funds criminal, terror groups

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Environmental crime such as the poaching of elephants for ivory and the selling of illegal charcoal is helping to finance criminal, militia and terrorists groups, said a report from the United Nations Environment Program released Tuesday.

The Somali terror group al-Shabab makes between $38 million and $56 million per year in illegal charcoal, the report said. Other militia groups — including the Lord’s Resistance Army, which U.S. troops are trying to help hunt down in central Africa — make between $4 million and $12 million a year by trafficking elephant ivory.