more than 4 million hides are bought in China once a year (Image: AFP)

Criminals in West Africa are taking advantage of a growing call for for donkey skins in Asia. 

in keeping with the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), a pan-African assume tank, the global black market for donkey hides is essentially pushed by China, where glue, or ‘ejiao’, is extracted from the skins to produce conventional medications, cosmetics, and even aphrodisiacs. 

Those practices have seen the selection of donkeys in China lower dramatically for the reason that 1990s.

The area has grow to be a hotspot for trafficking in donkey skins, thank you in part to lax enforcement through authorities.

The animals are sometimes cruelly killed with crude tools, like hammers or daggers. 

Donkeys at a dock at a licensed specialised slaughterhouse in Baringo, Kenya the place the industry may be rife (Image: AFP)