DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Tanzania has sacked the most senior official responsible for managing its wildlife and two others over the illegal export of more than 100 live animals and birds from the east African nation's game parks, local media reported on Tuesday.
In a case likely to damage Tanzania's reputation for looking after its exotic wildlife - a lucrative draw for tourists - Obeid Mbangwa, the director of wildlife, and two subordinates have been accused of involvement in the smuggling of animals to Qatar in a military plane in November 2010.
"They have already been served with letters of dismissal," state-run Daily News quoted the country's Natural Resources and Tourism Minister Hamisi Kagasheki as telling a news conference in Tanzania's political capital, Dodoma.