Cameroon
says a wave of attacks by armed elephant poachers has killed at least eight
soldiers and rangers in a northern national park. The poachers killed elephants
too, further shrinking the population of the increasingly endangered animals.
A decomposing carcass of an elephant
without its tusks lies in Cameroon's Bouba Ndjida national park some 17
kilometers from the border with Chad.
Forest ranger Lamza Abdoulahi says
two of his colleagues were killed less than a week ago by heavily armed
poachers. It was just one of several attacks within the past month.
The ranger, Abdoulahi, said the
poachers invaded Cameroon through its northern border with Chad, killed so many
elephants and people who tried to resist and then escaped across the border
before military reinforcement could come.
He said the rangers' old weapons,
like the rusty rifle he carries, are no match for the poaching gangs. Village
self-defense groups protecting the park have just machetes and spears.
Jean Abate, governor of the north
region of Cameroon where Bouba Ndjida is located, said eight soldiers and
forest rangers as well as several members of village self-defense groups have
been killed.
He said the government of Cameroon
has taken energetic measures to stop the attackers. He said the protection of
Cameroon's territorial integrity and all of its resources must be assured to
secure the population and prevent a mass killing of elephants like what
happened in 2012 when the park lost 200 of the majestic animals.
In 2012, officials reported
incursions by Sudanese and Chadian poachers armed with machine guns and also
operating in gangs on horseback. Prior to that year, Bouba Ndjida was home to
an estimated 1,000 elephants. Conservation groups say the park lost at least
400 elephants in 2012, double the government estimate.
Eric Kaba, of the international
conservation group the Last Great Ape, said Cameroon is not alone. Vast numbers
of elephants in Africa have been slaughtered to feed consumer demand for ivory
in Asian countries.
"In 1990, about 450,000
elephants existed in the wild, and you find a situation where 30,000 to 50,000
elephants are killed in a year. If current trends continue, one thing is very
clear is that in a very short term, we are going to lose our elephants in the
wild. The children coming up may only see the elephant in the zoo," said
Kaba.
In 2012, Cameroon deployed hundreds
of soldiers to the park to stem the attacks, but the soldiers' numbers have
since been reduced amid other security challenges, like the war against Boko
Haram. The military says it is preparing a fresh deployment to Bouba Ndjida in
response to the fresh wave of attacks.
China, which was once the world's
biggest market for ivory, has banned all trade in ivory and ivory products. The
measure, which was announced last year, went into effect January.
African countries have meanwhile
been burning large stockpiles of seized wildlife products to discourage
poachers and traffickers. In 2016, Cameroon burned some 2,000 illegally
trafficked elephant tusks and hundreds of finished ivory products.
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