Stray elephants kill woman in Far North.

The incident is said to have occurred in the border locality of Balda, Kar-Hay Subdivision, Mayo-Danay Division on Tuesday May. 

The woman is said to have been amongst crowd of onlookers, whom out of curiosity, attempted to touch one of the elephants.

In the process, the lady is said to have been smashed by the elephant causing her death. 

The elephants are said to have further strayed to communities like Kongola, Kodek, Djarengol and Doursoungo in the Diamare Division.

In a statement issued May 24 by the Minister of Forestry and Wildlife, Jules Doret Ndongo, confirmed the incident.

“A group of four elephants, in their natural migration towards the Waza National Park, were sighted in the locality of Maga on 23 May 2023,” he stated.

He further said the services of the Far North Regional Delegation of Forests and Wildlife initiated an operation to drive the elephants back to park. 

“Unfortunately, this operation was hampered by the large influx of curious people, unaware of the danger, who blocked the corridor. In these circumstances, we deplore the death of the woman named Bintou in the locality of Balda, victim of an elephant charge,” he narrated.

He further detailed that: “The obstruction of the corridor disoriented the elephants who found themselves in Kongola, Maroua III subdivision on 24 May 2023. With the remarkable assistance of the Defence and Security Forces, the personnel of the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife reintegrated the four behemoths in a Mindif-Mulvoudaye corridor, in the direction of Waza National Park, without any incident”.

While expressing condolences to the family of the deceased, the Minister reiterated government’s commitment to spare no effort to provide solutions to the spiky problem of recurrent human-wildlife conflicts. 

He, however, urged the population to be civic-minded even as personnel from his ministry have been deployed on the ground to deal with any eventuality.

“As the operation to drive back the aforementioned pachyderms is still ongoing, the Minister invites the population along the corridor to stay in their homes and avoid approaching the animals,” Minister Ndongo appealed.  

Governor bans gatherings

In a separate statement released May 24, the Far North Governor, Midjiyawa Bakari, has prohibited “any gathering around roaming pachyderms outside their natural habitat”.

The governor, in the statement, noted that the Maroua population should take special note of the decision. 

Calling on the population to be civil in their behaviours to avoid taking any unnecessary risk during roaming of protected wildlife species, he stated that local officials in charge of the Environment, Forests and Wildlife should be alerted to take appropriate measures in the advent of straying wildlife.

It is worth noting that cases of wildlife wandering around protected areas have been regularly reported lately in Cameroon. Some months ago, elephants were reported to have gone on rampage in certain villages around the Campo Ma'an National Park in the South region. The beasts were said to have destroyed farmlands, injure a few persons in the process. 

While government officials have often blamed this increasing human-wildlife conflicts on the occupation of the animals’ corridors by residents, the populations have often blame the rampant sales wood concessions around parks and the installation of agro-industrial activities on their living spaces which obliges the beasts to get closer to inhabited biosphere.