At least five elephants were killed last week in southern Chad by poachers who seized their tusks, according to the authorities and an NGO which is alarmed on Tuesday by a "sudden resumption" of these
acts
.
There are less than 1,500 elephants left in Chad in 2023 compared to tens of thousands 30 years ago, and the last known killings for their ivory date back to 2017, worries the Chadian NGO SOS Elephants in a press release.
Necessary firmness
"
At least five elephants were killed last week by poachers
" in the area of Beinamar, capital of the Dodjé department, 400 km south of the capital N'Djamena, assured AFP Adam Ahmat Assane, secretary general of SOS Elephants.
"
Elephants have been killed but their number has not yet been communicated to me, our forces are tracking down the poachers who killed them
," the deputy director general of the forest resources administration confirmed to AFP. , Wildlife and Fisheries, Hamid Mahamat Hissein Itno.
Read alsoWhen poaching and evolution make elephant tusks disappear
They were killed by “
armed horsemen
” and the bodies were found “
without their tusks
”, specifies the NGO in a press release.
She "
is concerned about the sudden resumption of this serious attack on Chad's wildlife
".
This type of poaching "
gradually stopped about 10 years ago
", after Chadian President Idriss Déby Itno, killed two years ago at the front against rebels, "
had taken very severe measures to protect the last elephants in Chad from 2008
," writes the NGO.
Read alsoElephant poaching decreased in 2017
Most of the approximately 1,500 elephants listed by the association live in protected reserves but they are poached especially as soon as they leave them, explains SOS Elephants, who calls on President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, proclaimed head of state by the armed at the death of his father on April 20, 2021, to "
show the greatest firmness
".
"
Between 2009 and 2011, more than 200 elephants were killed in the provinces of Chari Baguirmi and Mayo Kebbi Est
", close to Beinamar and bordering Cameroon, details Adam Ahmat Assane, adding: "
The last cases took place in 2016 and 2017 in these two provinces, with at least 20
“pachyderms killed.