Africa is a hotspot in the sphere of illegal parrot trapping, an activity that causes harm to individual birds and whole populations. In a bid to increase support across Africa for parrots rescued from trafficking, the World Parrot Trust launched the Mobile Veterinary Unit.

The unit supports the FlyFree program, begun in 2009, in Africa. Headed by WPT’s Dr. Steven Janssen, it provides technical and practical aid to parrots in emergency situations in addition to strategically scaling up capabilities to work in illegal trade hotspots. It has supplied training to more than 150 local vets and rescue workers, aiding emergency responses across DRC, Nigeria and Liberia. In November 2024, Dr. Janssen travelled to the Democratic Republic of Congo to support the new Dingi Rescue Centre’s development. The centre, which is operated by the Lukuru Foundation and partly funded by the WPT, has received over 600 confiscated parrots to date. In a subsequent visit to the DRC WPT received a group of over 100 Grey Parrots that had been seized in Turkey. WPT worked with partners to secure their repatriation to the DRC and was there conducting health checks and disease screening, ensuring they safely made it to Dingi Rescue Centre for rehabilitation.