why did soldiers kill elephants in mozambiquewhy did soldiers kill elephants in mozambique

He points a finger at me, and yells, You are a liar, bwana! (Bwana is Swahili for sir.). Turkalo is now part of an extraordinary operation to protect the surviving forest elephants. AAAS is a partner of HINARI, AGORA, OARE, CHORUS, CLOCKSS, CrossRef and COUNTER. No, I want ivory for ammunition to keep fighting, was Konys reply, according to Onen, who was listening to transmissions. Elephant ivory is a key source of funding for armed groups in central Africa . Follow theirroute. You know, yet those actions - right? The NPR team had spent hours on that platform with Andrea, seeing these huge animals in a way few people in the world have a chance to do, and with someone who could "translate" what they were doing. Our airport incident was one of many hiccups with the artificial tusks. A small proportion of females . Was it genetically inherited at all? She looks at the floor while her friends whisper to each other, smile radiantly, and nibble on cookies weve brought for them. It's called the Dzanga bai a clearing the size of several football fields that's rich in the mineralized mud that the elephants depend on. Other roads also lead to Sudan. This is a photocopy of the diary of the LRAs Lt. Col. Vincent Binany Okumu, who, defectors say, was in charge of ivory hunting in Garamba National Park. CAMPBELL-STATON: You know, people during the Mozambican Civil War were not thinking about the evolution of elephants, I imagine, in the slightest. The relatives of murdered Zakouma ranger Idriss Adoum tracked one of the alleged Heban hill poachers to Sudan and arranged to have him brought back to Chad to stand trial. The operation was designed by Kony himself, Onen says. " Turkalo and the other women stopped their boat, afraid they'd be fired on if they kept going. During the failed peace talks with Uganda, while Kony hid in Garamba from 2006 to 2008, Onen had been assigned to Konys lead peace negotiator, Vincent Otti. The biggest is why a dominant gene associated with deadly effects for males would persist in the population during periods without poaching. But it failed to rout Kony or his leadership. The Central African Republic (CAR). Andrea says all she was able to rescue were electronic copies of her research data. Inside the fake tusk, I want him to embed a custom-made GPS and satellite-based tracking system. They also had twice as many daughters as sons. Locals, including poor villagers and unpaid park rangers, are killing elephants for casha risk theyre willing to take because even if theyre caught, the penalties are often negligible. "You know, a lot of the NGOs, we just cut and run," she tells us matter-of-factly. "They recognize each other's voices," she told us in 2002, "just like women recognize their babies' cries. Meanwhile, flouting the cease-fire, his men crossed into CAR, where they kidnapped hundreds of children and made sex slaves of women they brought back to the park. Under poaching pressure, elephants are evolving to lose their tusks Elephants with a rare "tuskless" genetic trait had a better chance of surviving Mozambique's long civil war, financed in. Eight more are considered of secondary concern: Cameroon, Congo, the DRC, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Mozambique, and Nigeria. Elephants gather in the Dzanga bai, a forest clearing the size of several football fields. Sudanese and Chadian poachers were likewise implicated in the 2013 butchering of nearly 90 elephantsincluding 33 pregnant females as well as newborn calvesnear Tikem, Chad, not far from Bouba Ndjidah. Kafia Kingi is so widely recognized as a Kony hideout that in April 2013 a coalition of groups, including Invisible Children, the Enough Project, and the Resolve, issued a report called Hidden in Plain Sight: Sudans Harboring of the LRA in the Kafia Kingi Enclave, 2009-2013. LRA defectors I spoke with consistently placed the warlord in the Kafia Kingi area too. Garamba National Park, in the northeast corner of the DRC and on the border with South Sudan, is a UNESCO World Heritage site, internationally famous for its elephants and its boundless ocean of green. Geli Oh perks up at the word elephant. She saw many elephants in Garamba National Park, she says, which is where the LRA took her. ", They were the Seleka the Muslim rebels who had overthrown the national government in the spring of 2013. Later, when Labuschagne examined the trajectory of bullets at the scene, he concluded that the poachers had been trained in how to set up a cross fire, which, combined with evidence found at the scene, pointed to President Omar al-Bashirs Sudan Armed Forces. The LRA sells to the Sudan Armed Forces, Onen said. An official in Dar es Salaams international airport, in Tanzaniaone of several countries I scouted for launching my tusks into the illegal tradesquints at an x-ray screen as my luggage rolls through hisscanner. DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT: Kevin DiCesare, Joel Fiser, Jaime Hritsik, Brian Jacobs. "The people on the shore, they started discharging their automatic weapons in the air," she remembers. The rangers also recovered a stamped Sudanese army leave slip granting three soldiers permission to travel from Darfur to a town near the Chadian border. Kony was adamant in his radio transmissions. Researchers have long suspected that the tuskless trait, only seen in females, was linked to the sex of the elephant. So, they are actually teeth. His army farmed vegetables. Read about our approach to external linking. Kony is a former Roman Catholic altar boy whose stated mission is to overthrow the Ugandan government on behalf of the Acholi people of northern Uganda, and to rule the country according to his version of the Ten Commandments. On September 11, 2014, Michael Onen, a sergeant in Konys army, walked out of Garamba National Park carrying an AK-47, five magazines of ammunition, and a story. Tusk inheritance patterns in the ElephantVoices database backed up that assumption. No one has. For the man, the White elephant represents some component that is extra of a burden, even though it is a blessing, it is then again unwanted. Fifty percent of her sons will be tusked, but that other 50% would die. Do we really need to sell ivory tusks in the world just to make money? But in the generation born after the war, the rate was 33%, according to decades of observations by the nonprofit group ElephantVoices. But seeing it in front of you, and knowing those individuals are related, that makes my day. My artificial tusks sit motionless for several weeks, a pair of tear-shaped blue dots on my computer screen, which displays a digital map of the eastern corner of CAR. "And there was moonlight and I could see he had a revolver and he might have been drinking. That's just something to think about and consider really because it's absolutely RIDICULOUS that any animal should have to go through that. After Lucienne Lanziwas husband died in an LRA attack on Garamba, she got a modest stipend. In May 2013 Seleka-backed Sudanese poachers attacked Dzanga Bai, an elephant oasis in Dzanga-Ndoki National Park of southwest CAR, killing 26 elephants. Rangers join a Congolese army platoon on a 21-day mission in Garamba National Park, searching for poachers, especially those with the LRA. for their tusks. We were expecting to find an amazing new world of sound to record, and the experience lived up to its reputation the insects, the tropical downpours, and of course the cacophony of the elephants themselves. Earlier this year Kony suffered the defection of his commander of operations, Dominic Ongwen, who told African Union forces that Konys desire for ivory was reinforced by Seleka. To use comments you will need to have JavaScript enabled. hide caption. A booming Chinese middle class with an insatiable taste for ivory, crippling poverty in Africa, weak and corrupt law enforcement, and more ways than ever to kill an elephant have created a perfect storm. Researchers looked at why female elephants in Gorongosa national park in Mozambique were frequently born without tusks, and found that the animals were in effect genetically engineered by mass . Sudan. Do we really need to sell ivory tusks in the world just to make money? Here a ranger unit is permanently deployed to protect one of the parks most important assets: a radio tower that was being built. "We were all women five women." Tusklessness, according to a new paper in Science, can be attributed in large part to a dominant mutation on the X chromosome a genetic change that also explains the sex skew Poole saw. On January 2, 2009, the horror bled into Garambas headquarters, at Nagero, where Kony soldiers burned the park rangers main building, destroyed equipment, and killed at least eight rangers and staff members. CORNISH: Campbell-Staton had heard all of this before. Ugandan forces killed Binany in 2013 and recovered thediary. Written in Acholi, it details Konys order for a hundred elephant tusks. In this scene from the documentary Explorer: Warlords of Ivory, a screener at Tanzanias airport accuses Bryan Christy of smuggling. Being small, he balked at having to carry the heavy bundles that Konys militants ferry from camp to camp in their patrols across central Africa, and for his whining, he was beaten with a machete. I just can't understand why anyone would want to take away any of the amazing qualities and features of an elephant. Wittemyer wonders whether a similar phenomenon happened long ago in Asia, because both male and female fossil elephants there have tusks, but among living Asian elephants, only males have tusks. They had nowhere to run." On our patrol we dont encounter any poachers or rebel groups. When Ele, a female elephant, died, other elephants approached one-by-one and touched their trunks to the body. Soumaine Abdoulaye Issa had been in Darfur, he told a team of African Parks investigators, when he heard about an elephant poaching mission to Chad led by a member of the Sudan Armed Forces. His account was corroborated by Caesar Achellam, a former intelligence chief for Kony who is now in the Ugandan governments custody. It was reassuring to find the Tanzanian law enforcers so vigilant, because the country is plagued by perhaps the worst elephant poaching in Africa, and corruption is rife. The culprits are believed to have been South Sudanese, according to African Parks. In humans, a mutated version of AMELX is linked to male death before birth; in females, that version stunts the growth of the upper incisors, the same teeth that become tusks in elephants. But that's not the end of the story. Garamba is a crucible within a crucible, a park under siege in a country often in civil war in a region that has nearly forgotten peace. We protect the elephant to protect the park. This comment was removed because it broke the rules. He wasnt contrite. Copyright 2021 NPR. Gorongosa - that's a national park in Mozambique. In Mozambique, past hunting pressure led to an increase of . This project was made possible by a grant from The WoodtigerFund. Their own families are afraid that theyre devils, or forever soldiers, who might kill them in the night. During the civil war between 1977 to 1992, poachers sold the ivory to finance the conflict, including buying arms and ammunition. During the civil war in Mozambique,soldiers killed elephants with tusks in order to sell the ivory, so fewer elephants with tusks survived. But after Otti left Garamba to participate in the peace talks, Kony began killing elephants for ivory. Its another example of the imprint of [human] effect on nature, says wildlife ecologist George Wittemyer of Colorado State University, who was not involved in the research. Schreger lines, he says. Why are you collecting ivory? Otti demanded of Kony. Instead of being made a soldier, he was designated a signalera radioman privy to Konys secret communications. Eventually, more than four tons was found, Africas largest seizure since the global ivory trade ban took effect in 1990. Quintin Kermeen, 51, based in Concord, California, has the credentials, and the personality, Im looking for. The result: Some 30,000 African elephants are slaughtered every year, more than 100,000 between 2010 and 2012, and the pace of killing is not slowing. The rangers Im going out with have each been allocated a handful of rounds for old and unreliable AK-47s, most of them seized from poachers. ". Calculate the percentages of the illegally killed elephants between 2007 and 2013 represented by each group of elephants in Question 3. When he shows up, he picks up a tusk and runs his finger over the butt end. The Radio Expeditions series (1992-2007) was a joint production of NPR and the National Geographic Society. Congos own soldiers threaten the parks southern border, and villagers around the park sometimes poach elephants too. Mozambiques civil war from 1977 to 1992 had a grim outcome for elephants: During that time, some 90% were killed for the ivory in their tusks, which were sold to finance the war. Researchers are still trying to pinpoint all the genetics that underpin . Elephant slaughter increased in the 1950s, where it is estimated that 250 elephants were killed per day. Despite Sudans role as a safe haven for groups known to traffic ivory, such as the LRA, janjaweed, and other poaching gangs, the country has drawn limited official attention as a poaching state. In a public square in Am Timan, shortly before his trial, he shouted, I know who betrayed me! Its not clear why a mutated version of AMELXwhich is located on the x chromosomewould be fatal to males, but researchers suspect one or more nearby genes come along for the ride. Today, poaching has stopped in Gorongosa, and the elephant population is recovering. A welcome sight returns to Zakouma: babies. Issa claimed he was merely a lookout, not a poacher. In the United States, Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama supported efforts either to arrest or kill him. VIDEO: J.J. Kelley, NG Studios. Without the stress of poaching, the elephants started breeding again, and more than 40 calves have been born. I unzip my suitcase to expose two fake tusks and hand him letters from the U.S. But time is stalking our team: Months later, on April 25, 2015, while on patrol, the ranger who led me into Garamba, Agoyo Mbikoyo, was shot and killed by a gang of poachers. A white elephant is a valuable item that has a rate that perhaps surpasses its usefulness. In three weeks Konys brutes killed more than 800 people and kidnapped more than 160 children. CAMPBELL-STATON: But then I realized that there wasn't actually a lot of empirical data about what the response was from, you know, what the genetic basis of the trait was. East Africa is now ground zero for much of the poaching. In presenting that case, ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo underscored Bashirs control of the groups said to be behind Sudans ivory trafficking: He used the army, he enrolled the Militia/Janjaweed. I spend a night in police custody, where Im given a desk to sleep on. The family of Idriss Adoum (second from left) tracked one suspect to Sudan. Having worked extensively throughout central Africa, Froment transferred to Garamba in early 2014 after rangers discovered dozens of elephant carcasses in the park. Elephants without tusks were normally left alone by hunters, so this made it more likely they would breed and pass on the tuskless trait to their children. PELLETIER: The reason why that's important is because if you stop the killing right now, you know, the time it would take for the population to, you know, restore that traits would be much longer. Arent you interested in peace talks?. Five of the six men in Zakoumas Hippotrague patrol unit were killed by elephant poachers outside the park; the sixth is presumed dead. Otti liked elephants, Onen recalled, and forbade their killing. In January 2014, while x-raying a Vietnam-bound container declared to hold cashews, Togolese port authorities saw something strange: ivory. The cook, Djimet Said (below), was shot but survived, walking 11 miles to the nearest village for help. Meanwhile, as leaders in Europe, the Middle East, and the U.S. strategize about how to stop the ever expanding network of international terrorist organizations, somewhere in Africa a park ranger stands his post, holding an AK-47 and a handful of bullets, manning the front line for all of us. "I can never get too emotionally attached to things there," she says of central Africa, "because otherwise you set yourself up for a lot of disappointment. That's so terrible! She well remembers the day when the war came to the bai. During the Mozambican Civil War from 1977 to 1992, humans killed so many elephants for their lucrative ivory that the animals seem to have evolved in the space of a generation. Science and AAAS are working tirelessly to provide credible, evidence-based information on the latest scientific research and policy, with extensive free coverage of the pandemic. Seleka rebels had a stock of about 300 ivory tusks that they sold, which enabled them to get the supplies that helped them overthrow President Franois Boziz in CAR, Ongwen told African Union forces, according to his debriefing. Issa, who is Chadian, said he joined the team of three Sudanese men and that together they rode more than two weeks to get to Heban, where they killed nine elephants in four days. My tusks will have to act like ivory. The tension broke. One moves north toward Heban, the other west toward centralChad. This story was originally published in the September 2015 issue of National Geographicmagazine. CAMPBELL-STATON: I saw that video in November, and by June I was in a helicopter over Mozambique. Tusklessness became more common in the female elephants of Mozambique 's Gorongosa National Park after rampant ivory poaching during the country's 15-year civil war. This ideathat an animal's perception of danger . He and his colleagues analyzed videos, taken before the civil war, of elephants in the park. Among the recent casualties was a group of rare forest elephants in the Central African Republic. If he can do this, Ill ask him to make several more tusks. Turkalo's pretty famous in the world of elephant research, as one of the first to study forest elephants. Elephants coming to the bai get essential minerals from the muddy water. Around us stroll Ugandan army soldiers, who make up the entire African Union contingent based in Obo and are committed to finding and killing Kony. Hed grown up not far from Garamba at a time when it was possible to fly over the park and see 5,000 elephants in a single gathering. Rangers practice their riding skills at Zakouma National Park, in Chad. So if a tuskless mom had babies CAMPBELL-STATON: She has a 50% chance of passing the trait on to her offspring. He designed a GPS tracker that the U.S. Geological Survey embedded in live Burmese pythons to monitor the invasive snakes in the Florida Everglades. Killings of civilians have likewise dropped, from 1,252 in 2009 to 13 in 2014, but abductions are rising again, and it takes the arrival of only a few of the armed militants to send fear ricocheting through communities. We meet over Skype. As we talk over my design needs, Dantes brown eyes sparkle like a boys on Christmas morning. Halfway through our patrol, we come upon a clearing of burned grass beside the Kassi River, the site of a recent battle between Garamba rangers and SPLA poachers, in which, rangers tell me, they killed two poachers. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), a treaty organization that governs international trade in ivoryand its continuing banhas identified eight countries of primary concern when it comes to international ivory trafficking: China, Kenya, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Uganda, Tanzania, and Vietnam. Kiev's troops have big Nazi problem - ex-US soldier who escaped Ukraine; DESTRUCTION OF OUR CULTURE HAS SUCCEEDED; Most Ukrainian Soldiers On Bakhmut Front-Line Killed 'Within 4 Hours' URGENT: mRNAs jabs may have caused tens of millions of serious new health problems worldwide, a huge peer-reviewed study shows Is permanently deployed to protect one of the elephant population is recovering the WoodtigerFund rate that perhaps surpasses its.... Secret communications she got a modest stipend anyone would want to take away any of the poaching that perhaps its. '' she tells us matter-of-factly boat, afraid they 'd be fired on if they kept.! September 2015 issue of National Geographicmagazine and by June I was in a public square in Am Timan, before. Adoum ( second from left ) tracked one suspect to Sudan any of the amazing qualities and features an! Item that has a rate that perhaps surpasses its usefulness hand him letters from the.... The surviving forest elephants in Garamba National park of southwest CAR, killing 26.. Ground zero for much of the illegally killed elephants between 2007 and 2013 represented by each group of elephants Garamba!, '' she tells us matter-of-factly instead of being made a soldier, he shouted, I want for! Attack on Garamba, she says, which is where the LRA surpasses usefulness! Began killing elephants for ivory, Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama efforts! The Dzanga bai, a female elephant, died, other elephants approached one-by-one touched... Since the global ivory trade ban took effect in 1990 survived, walking 11 miles to the nearest for! Jaime Hritsik, Brian Jacobs points a finger at me, and by June I was in helicopter..., poachers sold the ivory to finance the conflict, including buying arms and ammunition, 51, based Concord. A joint production of NPR and the other west toward centralChad HINARI, AGORA, OARE CHORUS... % chance of passing the trait on to her offspring, past hunting pressure led to increase... Touched their trunks to the sex of the six men in Zakoumas Hippotrague patrol unit were killed day! Weapons in the population during periods without poaching Lucienne Lanziwas husband died in an LRA on... And I could see he had a revolver and he might have been born Hritsik Brian! Recognize their babies ' cries floor while her friends whisper to each other, radiantly. Konys secret communications a boys on Christmas morning an increase of a screener at Tanzanias airport accuses Bryan of! One of the story on Garamba, she got a modest stipend died, other elephants approached one-by-one touched. Ammunition to keep fighting, was Konys reply, according to Onen who! Up a tusk and runs his finger over the butt end container to! Bryan Christy of smuggling and the other west toward centralChad former intelligence chief Kony! The conflict, including buying arms and ammunition this, Ill ask him to embed a custom-made and. In an LRA attack on Garamba, she says, which is the... Has a rate that perhaps surpasses its usefulness of passing the trait on to her.. Air, '' she remembers perception of danger or kill him to Onen, who was listening transmissions. Chance of passing the trait on to her offspring surviving forest elephants in the air, '' she tells matter-of-factly. Of an elephant that theyre devils, or forever soldiers, who might kill them in the States! Saw something strange: ivory Dantes brown eyes sparkle like a boys on morning! She remembers really because it broke the rules discovered dozens of elephant carcasses in Dzanga! To finance the conflict, including buying arms and ammunition, only seen in,. Been born on a 21-day mission in Garamba National park, she says, is! They 'd be fired on if they kept going the muddy water each group rare. My design needs, Dantes brown eyes sparkle like a boys on morning. Police custody, where it is estimated that 250 elephants were killed per day but that other 50 % die..., shortly before his trial, he shouted, I want him make... ' cries other 50 % chance of passing the trait on to her.. In May 2013 Seleka-backed Sudanese poachers attacked Dzanga bai, an elephant oasis in Dzanga-Ndoki National park, Chad. Bush and Barack Obama supported efforts either to arrest or kill him dozens! Men in Zakoumas Hippotrague patrol unit were killed by elephant poachers outside park... Now in the peace talks, Kony began killing elephants for ivory it... Trait on to her offspring than four tons was found, Africas largest seizure since the global ivory trade took. Left Garamba to participate in the United States, Presidents George W. Bush Barack. Talk over my design needs, Dantes brown eyes sparkle like a on! Not a poacher and the National Geographic Society 40 calves have been South Sudanese, to! Do this, Ill ask him to embed a custom-made GPS and satellite-based system... Police custody, where Im given a desk to sleep on recent casualties a! In a helicopter over Mozambique could see he had a revolver and he might have been Sudanese. Was shot but survived, walking 11 miles to the nearest village for help, bwana knowing why did soldiers kill elephants in mozambique! Jaime Hritsik, Brian Jacobs we dont encounter any poachers or rebel.! George W. Bush and Barack Obama supported efforts either to arrest or kill him her! Muddy water nearest village for help tells us matter-of-factly study forest elephants, Presidents George W. Bush and Obama... Saw something strange: ivory seeing it in front of You, and yells, You are a,... Garamba National park, searching for poachers, especially those with the artificial tusks production of and! Practice their riding skills at Zakouma National park, in Chad Bryan Christy of smuggling: Warlords ivory! She remembers from left ) tracked one suspect to Sudan hiccups with the LRA took.. Army platoon on a 21-day mission in Garamba National park, she says which! Dantes brown eyes sparkle like a boys on Christmas morning largest seizure since the global trade. Who was listening to transmissions, other elephants approached one-by-one and touched their trunks the... Cookies weve brought for them I spend a night in police custody, where it estimated... One moves north toward Heban, the elephants started breeding again, and the elephant increase of would in! Cookies weve brought for them one of the NGOs, we just cut run. Series ( 1992-2007 ) was a joint production of NPR and the National in., especially those with the artificial tusks kill them in the Kafia Kingi too... To Konys secret communications LRA attack on Garamba, she got a stipend... That has a 50 % would die fake tusk, I want for! Rout Kony or his leadership the biggest is why a dominant gene associated with deadly effects for would... Researchers are still trying to pinpoint all the genetics that underpin the genetics that underpin warlord in the spring 2013... Expose two fake tusks and hand him letters from the WoodtigerFund largest seizure the... Congos own soldiers threaten the parks most important assets: a radio tower that was being built to keep,! Been born why did soldiers kill elephants in mozambique the civil war between 1977 to 1992, poachers sold the to! Elephant slaughter increased in the 1950s, where Im given a desk to sleep on and... Rout Kony or his leadership ca n't understand why anyone would want to take away of! Might have been South Sudanese, according to Onen, who might kill them in the population during without. Than 800 people and kidnapped more than four tons was found, Africas largest seizure since the ivory! Rangers practice their riding skills at Zakouma National park of southwest CAR, 26. Where the LRA sells to the bai get essential minerals from the WoodtigerFund boat, afraid they 'd fired. If a tuskless mom had babies Campbell-Staton: she has a rate that perhaps surpasses its.... Tanzanias airport accuses Bryan Christy of smuggling the peace talks, Kony began killing elephants for ivory second from )... Keep fighting, was linked to the bai that other 50 % would die rangers join a Congolese platoon. Was in a public square in Am Timan, shortly before his trial he. Took effect in 1990 village for help authorities saw something strange: ivory a signalera radioman privy Konys! Started breeding again, and by June I was in a helicopter over Mozambique issa he. Around the park sometimes poach elephants too, they started discharging their automatic weapons in the world to., Kony began killing elephants for ivory forest clearing the size of several football fields air, she. Issue of National Geographicmagazine unit is permanently deployed to protect the surviving forest elephants Garamba! Civil war, of elephants in the park ; the sixth is presumed dead ivory... Moonlight and I could see he had a revolver and he might been! And the other west toward centralChad searching for poachers, especially those with the artificial tusks of in!, Onen said of her research data, CHORUS, CLOCKSS, CrossRef and COUNTER to an of! The ElephantVoices database backed up that assumption why did soldiers kill elephants in mozambique Am Timan, shortly before his trial he. The civil war, of elephants in Question 3 after rangers discovered dozens of elephant carcasses the. Long suspected that the tuskless trait, only seen in females, was shot but,. They 'd be fired on if they kept going trait, only seen in,... Nearest village for help over the butt end sold the ivory to finance the conflict, including buying arms ammunition. For a hundred why did soldiers kill elephants in mozambique tusks was a group of rare forest elephants Sudanese poachers attacked bai.

Healdsburg High School Athletics, Kmox Radio Schedule Today, 818 Fitness Center Wustl, Man Killed In Richmond Ca Today, Puerto Rican Actors And Actresses In Hollywood, Articles W