Poachers in Cameroon kill up to 300 elephants in one month alone

Poachers in Cameroon kill up to 300 elephants in one month alone

2012-02-22 09:39:01 GMT+7 (ICT)

YAOUNDE, CAMEROON (BNO NEWS) -- Poachers in northern Cameroon have slaughtered as many as 300 elephants for their tusks in the last month alone, a dramatic increase from previous years, officials said on Tuesday.

The killings, originally reported by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), were confirmed by Cameroon's minister of forestry and wildlife. Minister Ngole Philip Ngwese said that an armed gang of Sudanese poachers had killed the free-roaming elephants in the Bouba Ndjida National Park, on Cameroon's border with Chad.

One park official, Bouba Jadi, told CNN that the large number of deaths are worsening the situation for Cameroon's already threatened elephant populations. According to official estimates, there are between 1,000 and 5,000 elephants in Cameroon.

The IFAW said at least 100 elephant carcasses have been found in the park since mid-January. "It was common for armed gangs of poachers to cross from Sudan during the dry season to kill elephants for their ivory. But this latest massacre is massive and has no comparison to those of the preceding years," IFAW official Celine Sissler Bienvenu told local newspaper The Voice.

She added that the ivory is smuggled out of West and Central Africa for markets in Asia and Europe, and money from ivory sales fund arms purchases for use in regional conflicts, particularly ongoing unrest in Sudan and in the Central African Republic.

The group said many orphaned elephant calves have been spotted, and concerns are high that the babies may soon die of hunger and thirst. Observers in Cameroon have been blaming the raids on poorly trained and ill-equipped park guards.

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