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95 percent of all rhino poaching in Africa between 2006 and 2009 occurred in Zimbabwe (235 Rhinos Killed) and South Africa (210 Rhinos Killed).

Source: “‘Global surge’ in rhino poaching,” BBC News, December 1, 2009.

In addition, in 2009 there were 3 times as many rhinos being poached per month in South Africa and Zimbabwe than the average of poached rhinos for all of Africa between 2000 and 205.

Source:  Alan Boswell, “Kenya Seizes Ivory, Rhino Horns as Poaching on Rise,” Voice of America News, July 16, 2009.

Price is in US Dollar and represents the typical price of Ecstasy in Africa.

Source: UNODC, “World Drug Report 2009: Section 3.4 Prices, pages 215 to 234,” June 2009.

Prices are in US Dollars and represent the typical price of heroin in Africa.

Source: UNODC, “World Drug Report 2009: Section 3.4 Prices, pages 215 to 234,” June 2009.

Human Rights Watch is accusing the Zimbabwe Army of operating a diamond smuggling ring in its country.  The report states that the army is forcing laborers, including children, to mine diamonds.  Over 200 are believed to have been killed when the army took over mining operations.  The military makes up to $200 million a month from the illegal sale of diamonds.

Source:  “Zimbabwe army ‘runs diamond mine’,” BBC News, June 26, 2009.

The report by Human Rights Watch:  Diamonds in the Rough

Between March 2008 and June 2009, around 120 rhinos were poached in Zimbabwe to meet the demand of China’s black  market trade in rhino horns.

There are between 400 to 700 rhinos left in Zimbabwe.

Source:  David Smith, “Poachers wiping out Zimbabwe’s rhinos as demand surges,” Guardian, June 9, 2009.

Software piracy and other forms of copyright piracy costs the Zimbabwe economy up to $4 million a year.

Up to 92 percent of all software used in Zimbabwe is pirated, according to the Business Software Alliance.

Source:  Ish Mafundikawa, “Zimbabwe Among Top Software Piracy Countries,” Voice of America News, June 4, 2009.

Illegal miners of diamonds in Zimbabwe are getting involved in clashes with security forces as fewer resources in the country leads more to the trade.

From the LA Times:

Ronald seems a sober, respectable, church-on-Sunday type. Not the kind you’d find prospecting for diamonds here in Zimbabwe’s wild east, a world of swaggering foreigners, dirty money and shoot-to-kill police. Not the sort who’d utter movie-script lines like this one: “You can make $15,000 or $20,000 in 30 minutes. But you can die within seconds.”

Ronald, like the rest of Zimbabwe, has caught Africa’s nastiest ailment — diamond fever.

Sleepy towns such as Mutare have blinked awake to find their quiet streets buzzing with opportunists and black marketeers. Every day, illicit miners show up at the hospital with gaping bullet wounds and flimsy excuses for how they got them. Characters straight out of “Blood Diamond” cruise like sharks.

But the biggest sharks are nowhere to be seen: Officials of President Robert Mugabe’s regime are looting the diamonds, industry sources and members of Zimbabwe’s security services say.

Not only are they personally enriching themselves with one of the few natural resources still left in this ruined country, party fat cats may be finding life support in the diamond riches, Western diplomats and analysts fear, and gaining one more motive to cling to power.

The Zimbabwe Army lashed out against currency brokers in an attempt to address cash shortages.

From the AFP (via Google News):

Zimbabwe’s army beat up and arrested illegal foreign currency traders in the streets of Harare on Monday, accusing them of causing the country’s severe cash shortages, police said.

Soldiers clashed with dealers after the armed forces began rounding up currency traders in the capital, an AFP journalist said.

Police were called to break up the clash, which degenerated into a looting binge in several shops, in which soldiers were accused of participating.