Johannesburg  - South Africa's Kruger National Park declared war Thursday on poachers after losing 27 rhinoceros to poaching since the beginning of the year.

"Poachers must beware because we will seek them out, we will find them and they will be dealt with," the head of South Africa's national parks authority SANParks said in a statement.

David Mabunda said Kruger Park would be spending 2 million rand (around 257 million dollars) to beef up its anti-poaching activities, including hiring 57 more rangers to police the country's biggest game reserve, David Mabunda said.

Mabunda also welcomed government's decision to redeploy the army to guard the border with Mozambique. The park borders on Mozambique in the east.

Last year, at least 76 rhinoceros were killed by poachers in parks across the country, a dramatic increase on 2007, when only 10 were killed.

The spike in poaching is driven mainly by the booming trade in rhinoceros horn in Asia, where it used in traditional medicine.

SANParks further reported the theft of a little over 10 kilos of rhino horn from Addo Elephant National Park in the south-west of the country during what it called "a violent armed robbery" in July.(dpa)