The project area Tridom Interzone receives funding from the World Widelife Fund for Nature (WWF) in Congo. It was announced on August 1 in the newspaper Dispatches from Brazzaville, the arrest of Mr. Abbo Hamadou, a national of Cameroon, for his involvement in the purchase of eight ivory tusks. The latter was arrested on the night of July 27, 2016, by police working in the locality of Sembé. Shortly before his arrest, he tried to escape towards the city of Ouesso in his vehicle at around 22h. An investigation was opened by the anti-poaching patrol project, World Wildlife Fund and Space Tridom Interzone Congo WWF-ETIC.
According to the same source, after the police interrogation, Abbo Hamadou was quoted by the poacher Xavier Minda, a national of Cameroon, as the buyer of ivory eight tusks or the equivalent of four elephants slaughtered. Said poacher was arrested in the district of Ngbala, for illegal possession of a weapon and ammunition of war, which would have served to fell these elephants.
Very consistent in this regard, the poacher Xavier Minda also denounced Edgard Beranger, Gonock Evounanga, and Ghislain Mesong as accomplice poachers who participated in the great hunt as well as the marketing operation of these tusks with Mr. Abbo Hamadou, renowned big buyer.
For the activists of the environment and anti-poaching organization working in Sembé, this is not Abbo Hamadou’s first crime. He was arrested March 20, 2015, at Sembé for the illegal possession of weapon of war he used to organize hunting parties on the elephant. He was condemned, May 7, 2015, to three months’ imprisonment by the Court of Ouesso, but did not serve his sentence, having obtained from the sentence enforcement judge, a leave of absence for treatment of symptoms of illness he had. But unfortunately he did not go back there to serve his sentence.
Conservation services and repression present in the district Sembé, regarding the residence and exercises of Mr. Abbo Hamadou, have long suspected his illegal ivory trafficking activities. “Now, with the charges hanging over him, their wish would be that the judge makes good application of the law, condemning them rigorously. At the rate we’re going, because of the bad faith of the organized crime groups determined to exterminate our wildlife, we risk losing our elephants, despite government efforts and NGO partners working to preserve our natural resources,” says a member of the WWF-ETIC project. Except for any program change, the wildlife offender Abbo Hamadou and his gang will be heard before the Court of Ouesso at the hearing on August 18.
Recall that the space Tridom Interzone project receives funding from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).