86 elephants killed in Chad poaching massacre

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/mar/19/86-elephants-chad-poaching-massacre


Around 650 elephants were killed in Bouba N’Djida national park in February 2012. Photograph: Anonymous/AP

Poachers in south-west Chad have killed at least 86 elephants including 33 pregnant females in less than a week, in a potentially devastating blow to one of central Africa's last remaining elephant populations.

Groups of elephants follow traditional migration routes during the dry season from Central African Republic, through Chad to Cameroon. Thirty years ago there were estimates of 150,000 animals across the region, but today that figure could be as low as 2,000.

According to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), the elephants were killed near Fianga, close to the border between Chad and Cameroon, and their tusks were hacked off. Fianga is near a cross-border national park area – Sene Oura in Chad and Bouba N'Djida in Cameroon, where many elephants spend the dry season before the rains start in April. It is thought the animals were killed by Chadian and Sudanese poachers travelling on horseback carrying AK47s and hacksaws to remove the tusks.

"The poachers killed pregnant females and all the calves," said Celine Sissler-Bienvenu from IFAW. "Even if the conditions were right, which they are not, it would take more than 20 years for this population to recover".

[PETRUS]

1. So sad.