Cameroon: 11 More Elephants Slaughtered in Southeast
Cameroon: 11 More Elephants Slaughtered in Southeast
Pegue Manga, The Post (Buea)
25 July 2008
Game rangers in Southeast Cameroon, July 14, 2008, confiscated 22 ivory
tusks and 11 elephant tails.
The owner of the tusks, a businessman, had cut each tusk into two
halves, packed them in two plastic bags and hidden them in the driver
compartment of a fuel tanker en route to Cameroon's economic capital
city Douala.
The tanker driver escaped abandoning his truck while the poacher has
been arrested and detained, pending trial. Wildlife authorities,
supported by forces of law and order, are searching for other suspects
in connection with the act.
The elephant tusks were seized in Mikel, a village in Boumba et Ngoko
Division, located 740km east of Cameroon's capital city, Yaounde. Thanks
to information given by local population, game rangers swooped on the
fuel tanker during a nocturnal mobile patrol.
The suspect told conservation authorities that he bought the tusks from
poachers in Libongo, a logging town situated 880km from Yaounde, on the
extreme southeast of Cameroon's borders with Central African Republic.
The elephants, that included three calves, going by the sizes of the
ivory tusks, are suspected to have been killed in and around Lobeke
(Cameroon) and Dzanga-Ndoki (Central African Republic) national parks.
Both parks are sandwiched by Libongo town.
The suspect said it was the fourth time he had been to Libongo to buy
ivory tusks from Cameroonian and Central African poachers. He had spent
more than two months in Libongo this time. "I come to Libongo regularly.
The first time I succeeded in buying four tusks. I bought two the second
time, four the third time and 22 this time," he confessed. A kilogram of
tusk is sold at FCFA 15,000 (US$30).
According to the suspect, he supplies tusks to dealers in big cities of
Cameroon like Douala. The tusks are then smuggled across the borders to
some West African countries.
Truck Drivers Implicated
Records show that timber and fuel tanker truck drivers are most
implicated in the transportation of elephant tusks from the Southeast of
Cameroon. This is the sixth time truck drivers have been caught either
transporting illegal ivory or sacks of bush meat from Southeast Cameroon
this year.
According to the Chief of Sector in Charge of Wildlife for Boumba et
Ngoko Division, East Cameroon, poachers and truck drivers work in
complicity making it difficult to detect their activities. They,
therefore, succeed in meandering through the numerous checkpoints
mounted the roads. "Our wish is to create a mobile brigade that will
patrol major roads in the region and systematically search all
vehicles," declared Balla Ottou.
Lobeke National Park has one of the highest densities of forest
elephants in the Congo Basin but the park is under pressure from
poachers from all sides. Poaching, according to WWF Jengi Scientific
Advisor, Dr. Zacharie Nzooh, has resulted in the fragmentation of
elephant population in the park and surrounding zones. "Most corridors
that were frequently used by elephants are now irregularly used due to
poaching," Dr. Nzooh revealed.
WWF alongside other conservation organisations have been supporting
Cameroon's Forest and Wildlife Ministry in its effort to bolster
security around the park. Control posts have been built in and around
the park, a VHF radio system has been installed to facilitate
communication and 29 game rangers have been deployed to keep poachers at
bay.
Cameroon's Wildlife Ministry and WWF have set up a network of informants
to combat "white-collared" poachers. According to WWF, elephant poaching
has been on the increase due to the involvement of some influential
people in this activity.
This latest incident lends credence to a 2007 report by the Wildlife
trade monitoring network, TRAFFIC, which cited Cameroon amongst three
countries in the Central African sub-region heavily implicated in the
traffic of illicit ivory tusks to international markets.
Article at the following link:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200807251109.html
------------------------------------
Pegue Manga, The Post (Buea)
25 July 2008
Game rangers in Southeast Cameroon, July 14, 2008, confiscated 22 ivory
tusks and 11 elephant tails.
The owner of the tusks, a businessman, had cut each tusk into two
halves, packed them in two plastic bags and hidden them in the driver
compartment of a fuel tanker en route to Cameroon's economic capital
city Douala.
The tanker driver escaped abandoning his truck while the poacher has
been arrested and detained, pending trial. Wildlife authorities,
supported by forces of law and order, are searching for other suspects
in connection with the act.
The elephant tusks were seized in Mikel, a village in Boumba et Ngoko
Division, located 740km east of Cameroon's capital city, Yaounde. Thanks
to information given by local population, game rangers swooped on the
fuel tanker during a nocturnal mobile patrol.
The suspect told conservation authorities that he bought the tusks from
poachers in Libongo, a logging town situated 880km from Yaounde, on the
extreme southeast of Cameroon's borders with Central African Republic.
The elephants, that included three calves, going by the sizes of the
ivory tusks, are suspected to have been killed in and around Lobeke
(Cameroon) and Dzanga-Ndoki (Central African Republic) national parks.
Both parks are sandwiched by Libongo town.
The suspect said it was the fourth time he had been to Libongo to buy
ivory tusks from Cameroonian and Central African poachers. He had spent
more than two months in Libongo this time. "I come to Libongo regularly.
The first time I succeeded in buying four tusks. I bought two the second
time, four the third time and 22 this time," he confessed. A kilogram of
tusk is sold at FCFA 15,000 (US$30).
According to the suspect, he supplies tusks to dealers in big cities of
Cameroon like Douala. The tusks are then smuggled across the borders to
some West African countries.
Truck Drivers Implicated
Records show that timber and fuel tanker truck drivers are most
implicated in the transportation of elephant tusks from the Southeast of
Cameroon. This is the sixth time truck drivers have been caught either
transporting illegal ivory or sacks of bush meat from Southeast Cameroon
this year.
According to the Chief of Sector in Charge of Wildlife for Boumba et
Ngoko Division, East Cameroon, poachers and truck drivers work in
complicity making it difficult to detect their activities. They,
therefore, succeed in meandering through the numerous checkpoints
mounted the roads. "Our wish is to create a mobile brigade that will
patrol major roads in the region and systematically search all
vehicles," declared Balla Ottou.
Lobeke National Park has one of the highest densities of forest
elephants in the Congo Basin but the park is under pressure from
poachers from all sides. Poaching, according to WWF Jengi Scientific
Advisor, Dr. Zacharie Nzooh, has resulted in the fragmentation of
elephant population in the park and surrounding zones. "Most corridors
that were frequently used by elephants are now irregularly used due to
poaching," Dr. Nzooh revealed.
WWF alongside other conservation organisations have been supporting
Cameroon's Forest and Wildlife Ministry in its effort to bolster
security around the park. Control posts have been built in and around
the park, a VHF radio system has been installed to facilitate
communication and 29 game rangers have been deployed to keep poachers at
bay.
Cameroon's Wildlife Ministry and WWF have set up a network of informants
to combat "white-collared" poachers. According to WWF, elephant poaching
has been on the increase due to the involvement of some influential
people in this activity.
This latest incident lends credence to a 2007 report by the Wildlife
trade monitoring network, TRAFFIC, which cited Cameroon amongst three
countries in the Central African sub-region heavily implicated in the
traffic of illicit ivory tusks to international markets.
Article at the following link:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200807251109.html
------------------------------------