Gorilla skulls dealers nabbed in Bertoua

Two behind gorilla skull trafficking in Bertoua arrested

Two men aged 39 and 29 were arrested  in Bertoua in the East Region for wildlife trafficking during a wildlife law enforcement mission carried out by officials of the East Regional Delegation of Forestry and Wildlife following their attempts at selling a consignment of gorilla skulls. They had travelled from Batouri where they are resident with the consignment which was made of 10 fresh gorilla skulls indicating the apes were recently killed and arrived Bonis on the outskirts of Bertoua at about 3 30 pm on Thursday May 8, 2014 with the intention of doing some business. 
    The alleged dealers left Batouri early on the  day of their arrest, boarded a bike with the gorilla skulls loaded into two bags but did not use the normal road linking Batouri and Bertoua. They instead used roads and paths inside the forest and bush to avoid detection.. When they arrived Bonis,  they changed tactics fearful that their suspiciously looking bags could draw the attention of wildlife officials. They decided to use a car to be able to pass through the various check points at the entrance to Bertoua without raising any suspicion. Immediately they had cleared two of these check points, they drove straight into a team of wildlife officials and gendarmes who had been waiting for them.
     The two suspects found inside the car were arrested and taken to the premises of the East Regional Delegation of Forestry and Wildlife where a complaint report was drawn. The man who led the operation on the ground, the Regional Chief of Wildlife for the East Region, Azemte Mbemo declares “We received information from a reliable source indicating that illicit wildlife products were about to be trafficked in Bertoua and its environ. We immediately made up a team of enforcement officials who went to the field and arrested the suspects who had 10 gorilla skulls and 2 jaw bones. We have opened an investigation to determine the possibility of the presence of a trafficking network behind this trade. We have received top level instructions from the Forestry and Wildlife Minister to fight illicit trafficking which is decimating the populations of the large mammals” The operation was carried out with the collaboration of the Gendarmerie in Bertoua and with technical support from   LAGA –  a wildlife law enforcement body.

     The two suspects are believed to be seasoned professional poachers/traffickers as their movements with the skulls seem to indicate and following investigative reports that reveal that they could supply up to 50 gorilla skulls. They are equally suspected of trafficking of other parts such as elephant tails and skulls.  The dealers are believed to have killed the gorillas in the forests in the East Region but only came later to collect the skulls after the meat of the killed apes had been sold. According to a practice common among poachers around these areas, the limbs and heads of these animals are chopped off after the animal is killed while the carcass is brought out of the forests to be sold as bushmeat. The heads and limbs are left to rot and the skull is later collected to be sold as was the case with the 10 skulls and the two suspects who spent two days in the forest putting together the skulls. Wildlife officials say because gorillas have striking resemblance to human beings people are put off when the whole carcass is brought out of the forests, so poachers cut off the head that resembles a human head and equally cut out the fists, the section of the hand that carries the palm and fingers which also resemble the human palm and fingers. The same treatment is given to the feet.
     Gorillas are totally protected wildlife species in Cameroon and are severely threatened with extinction in the country. They are mostly killed for their meat as their size are seen by poachers and traffickers  as an advantage over smaller animals because a single kill can provide huge quantities of meat meaning good money may be obtained by selling the meat. One of the side effects of the poaching of gorillas is the growing number of babies and young ones which are collected and sold off as pet when they survive. Poachers generally shoot without discrimination and would kill a nursing gorilla and let the young one to die or they may simply collect it to be sold off as a pet. The trauma caused by this is generally too much for the young ape to bear and their survival rate is poor with most of them dying. These animals are very much like human beings as the gorilla shares up to 98% of its DNA with humans.
     According to the wildlife law anyone who is found in possession of parts of a protected wildlife species is presumed to have killed the animal and may face up to 3 years in jail and or pay a fine of up to 10 million francs.