Wildlife authorities in Cameroon arrested 20 suspects and
confiscated 45 guns during a 10-day anti-poaching operation that
targeted elephant poachers in, Yokadouma the southeast of the country.
Thirty-nine forest rangers, backed by 25 soldiers of the country’s rapid
intervention battalion, commonly known by its French acronym as BIR,
carried out the operation that lasted from April 15 to 26, 2013.
WWF’s Communications Officer at the Njengi Project in Yokadouma told
this reporter authorities transferred two suspects caught with an AK47
war gun to Bertoua, chief town of the east region of Cameroon, to stand
trial in a military tribunal. The local justice department formally
charged 18 other suspects, seven of whom were remanded to prison custody
while 11 were released on bail. Rangers also seized two ivory tusks,
gorilla, chimp and elephant meat, including a wide variety of other
wildlife species during the operation.
Clashes
Two suspects were wounded during clashes with eco-guards in separate
incidents. A suspect, who threatened to fire at rangers, was shot in the
leg, while another, who attempted to harm an eco-guard with a machete,
was slightly wounded in the left arm. A third suspect fled after firing
at one of the patrol vehicles inside a logging concession, shattering
the back screen but injuring none.
According to the Delegate for Forestry and Wildlife for the East Region
of Cameroon, the objectives of the operation were largely attained.
“With the seizure of 45 arms, 337 ammunitions, 10 chainsaws and more
than 3000 wire cables, we have inflicted a heavy blow on illegal
wildlife exploiters,” says DjogoToumouksala. “Their ability to wreak
havoc on elephants and other wildlife species has been curtailed,” Djogo
said. “Though this region is rich in wildlife, it is constantly menaced
by the proliferation of arms,” he added, promising many more of such
operations to guarantee the survival of elephants.
This operation was carried out incollaboration with the judiciary, the
military and the local administration. “We would not have registered any
success if the judiciary, administrative authorities, military and WWF
that helped us with financial and logistics support,” said the Wildlife
Delegate.
Arms circulation
The operation supported by WWF’s African Elephant Program, comes at the
backdrop of armed conflict in neighbouring Central African Republic.
Conservationists fear a rise in the circulationof war arms in the
southeast of Cameroon putting elephants and people in danger.
The number of guns and ammunitions seized portrays the degree of menace
besetting the forest and wildlife. “If there is one lesson this
operation has taught us, it is that poachers are well armed and no
longer hesitate to shoot at ecoguards on sight,” says Gilles Etoga, WWF
Project Manager for Boumba-Bek and Nki, who co-supervised the operation.
“We might not notice the degree of wildlife carnage going on in
southeast Cameroon, because we are in dense forest, where visibility is
inadequate. But the problem seems worse than what obtains in Bouba
Ndjida, North of Cameroon,” he said.
Cameroon government decided to go after Sudanese poachers riding on
horsebacks, massacred over 300 elephants in the Bouba Ndjida National
Park in the north of the country in 2012. The situation has united
central African countries now seeking effective response to what is now
known as the “elephant crisis.”
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afrikanews]
