2,000 tusks go up in flames as Cameroon battles poaching

Central Africa’s forest elephants declined in number by two-thirds between 2002 and 2012

Some 2,000 illegally trafficked elephant tusks and hundreds of finished ivory products erupted in a ball of fire on Tuesday as Cameroonian authorities conducted what was believed to be one of the largest burnings of poached wildlife goods in African history.

Setting the pyre aflame in a sandy square in Cameroon’s capital, Samantha Power, America’s United Nations (UN) ambassador, joined Cameroonian officials in hailing the ceremony as symbolic of their commitment to win the war against illegal smuggling of animal products.

Central Africa’s forest elephants declined in number by two-thirds between 2002 and 2012.

“All of our countries can and must do more,” Power said. The burning sends a clear message, she added, that “the only place ivory belongs and the only value ivory has is on elephants.”

Worth millions

The heap included ivory chess boards, beads, totem poles and even miniature elephant sculptures, all intermixed with the raw tusks.

Cameroonian officials said the pile totalled 3.5 tonnes of tusk alone, although that figure couldn’t be verified. What’s certain is the merchandise was worth millions of dollars. The pyre will burn for three days.

Philip Ngole Ngwese, Cameroon’s minister of forestry and wildlife, said the seized tusks and ivory, much of which originated abroad, were now “beyond reach.” He also described the human costs of poaching, mourning several guides and park rangers who have been killed in recent years.

Cameroon’s biggest city, Douala, is a port through which much of the region’s trafficked goods transit overseas.

Power, on a weeklong trip to promote the battle against the extremist group Boko Haram, also met President Paul Biya and other senior Cameroonian officials. She announced $40 million (Dh146 million) in new US humanitarian aid to the region.

The US has some 200 special operations forces in Cameroon advising and assisting African troops in the fight.

AFP US Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, accompanied by Cameroonian minister Philip Ngole Ngwese (right) place elephant tusks on a pile to be destroyed in the first ever Cameroonian burn of poached wildlife goods, at the Palais des Congres...