A man has been arrested with hundreds of carved ivory
pieces in a shop that sells arts objects and located at the ground floor of a
popular hotel in Yaounde. The arrest that took place last week was carried out
by wildlife officials from the Centre Regional Delegation of Forestry and
Wildlife.
Accompanied
by police officers from the judicial police, they arrived the hotel and move
into the shop where they waited for a couple of minutes for the storekeeper who
was absent to come. He was presented with the search warrant and the store
thoroughly searched to reveal over 200 carved ivory pieces among the other arts
objects on display. He was taken to the office of the judicial police chief
where the owner of the shop, on hearing the arrest, would turned up a day
later. They were both interrogated and statements taken down.
The
operation, is basically the first of its kind in several years as traffickers
have mostly resorted to selling raw ivory tusks which are then illegally
exported out of the country. This situation was very peculiar because one could
clearly see carved ivory pieces among other wooden artefacts on the shelves of
the shop in a very popular hotel that is
visited by so many people. Prices were equally found on the carved ivory
pieces. The operation was carried out
with the technical assistance of LAGA (EAGLE Cameroon).
Observers
were left spell bound to the fact this shop operates in the middle of Yaounde
where law enforcement activities against ivory traffickers have been intense
over the last few years. According to inside sources that spoke on condition of
anonymity, investigations carried out point to the fact that Chinese buyers are
generally the main clients buying ivory from the shop. In spite of the huge
media activity against trafficking in ivory products, this continues even in places
as open as this shop.
The case
file is being established for the prosecution process to begin and according to
the wildlife law, anyone found in possession of parts of a protected wildlife
species is considered to have killed or captured the animal and the law further
says such a person is liable to a prison term of up to 3 years and or a fine of
maximum 10 million francs. The law was enacted to deter trafficking in parts of
protected species, especially ivory which has over the years been rising in value
leading to increased profits for black market illegal traffickers. This has led
to the slaughter, since 2006, of an estimated 110 000 of the approximated 415
000 elephants found in 37 range states on the continent with the hardest hit
areas found in the Central African sub region.
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