Gorilla part dealer arrested in Lomie

22/11/2011

Gorilla part dealer arrested in Lomie

The Guardian Post | November 2011

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A dealer in protected wildlife species has been arrested in Lomie, in the Upper Nyong division of the East region. The man was arrested in possession of a huge stock of gorilla meat contained in a fridge in his home. Also found in the fridge were parts of De Brazza monkey and agile mangabey, a rare monkey species which belongs to class A and total­ly protected according to the 1994 wildlife law. Within 24 hours of the arrest the trafficker, three others were arrested in the same town — Lomie, with numerous parts of protected wildlife species.

The arrests were carried out by the Upper Nyong divisional delegation of forestry and wildlife in col­laboration with the forces of law and order and with the technical assistance of a wildlife law enforcement organization known as LAGA.

This operation comes on the heels of a recent operation that resulted in the rescue of a baby gorilla in Ngoyla in the East region. The gorilla had been cruelly inflicted a deep wound on one of its arms. This region habours some of Cameroon's rich wildlife heritage and is attracting a lot of attention from traffickers.

One of the countries bordering, this region is the Central African Republic which is one of the countries running the wildlife law enforcement replica­tion project — the RALF project, designed after the MINFOF — LAGA partner­ship model in Cameroon. The Bangui High Court sentenced two wildlife dealers to 6 months in prison and they are to each pay 500 000 frs as dam­ages. The traffickers were arrested in possession of a lion skin, a leopard skin, a crocodile skin and the skin of a bongo.

When World Conservation Union sources announced in 2007 that the west African black rhino may have been extinct in the world follow­ing studies carried out in North Cameroon that failed to locate any traces of the species, few thought this was real but 4 years along the line, the conservation body has just announced that there exists no rhinos in the whole of West Africa and Central Africa, having been claimed by extinction. The news published on the BBC website says "No wild black rhinos remain in West Africa, according to the latest global assessment of threatened species. The Red List, drawn up by the international Union for Conservation of Nature - IUCN, has declared the subspecies extinct". It fur­ther announces the possible extinction of another species of rhinos, the white rhino in Central Africa.