The trafficker was caught in possession of the fresh trunk of a young elephant killed in the area. Similarly, the Court of First Instance in Mamfe in Manyu Division of the South West Region ordered 3 dealers in elephant products to collectively pay to government the sum of 6 million CFA francs as damages and fines and serve a 2-year prison term each. In another measure, an illegal elephant hunter was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment by the High Court in Bangem in the South West Region for shooting to death an eco-guard at the Bayang-Mbo Wildlife Sanctuary in the South West Region.

Elephants are totally protected wildlife species under the law of 1994 governing the wildlife sector in Cameroon. According to this law, anyone found in possession of part of dead or live protected wildlife species including elephants is liable to a prison term of up to 3 years and or pay a fine of up to 10 million CFA francs.

The prosecution of the elephant dealers mentioned above is part of the national programme on effective wildlife law enforcement launched by government in 2003 with technical assistance from The Last Great Ape Organisation (LAGA) which aims at bringing the wildlife law offenders to justice.

The law of 1994 protecting wildlife in Cameroon is a reflection of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) for which Cameroon is a party. CITES regulates world trade in endangered wildlife species. " History has ordained that we must play a key role in keeping international law and order, we must because there is no one else to do it", states Karl Zinsmeister and colleagues (1992).

Stephen Blake of World Conservation Society (WCS) is cited in Wildlife Justice journal of November 2007 as having stated that some 700 000 elephants were killed to supply the international trade in elephant products between 1970 and 1989. In the same journal, Marc Kaufman of the Washington Post is quoted as revealing that an estimate of 23 000 elephants were slaughtered in 2006 on the heels of increased demand for ivory, attributing it to the collapse of international effort to halt the killing of elephants for illegal ivory trade in most of Africa.