Five elephants killed at the Bouba Ndjida National Park

The Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) and the 31st motorized infantry brigade has just launched an operation to track down poachers. Five carcasses of elephants at its early stage of decay were found in Bouba Ndjida National Park in the northern region January 13, 2015.

Poachers succeeded in their plunder when the attention of forest guards, wildlife authorities, the Cameroonian army and administrative and traditional authorities was diverted by the Boko Haram attacks in the far North.

Between January and March 2012, Sudanese and Chadian poachers had slaughtered almost 400 elephants in record time. To stop this trend, the BIR and the 31st Tcholliré motorized infantry brigade has launched an operation, "Peace at Bouba Ndjida" which aims to hunt poachers out of the Park and out of Cameroon in general.

The lamido of Rey Bouba, also vice of the Senate, called on his people to denounce suspicious persons that went about the villages and neighborhoods of the Park and inform the competent authorities about the arrival of poachers.

It has been noted that elephant ivory is traded for money, weapons and ammunition to fuel conflicts in neighbouring countries.