(Business in Cameroon) - The threat of famine looms over the populations in the villages of Guissia, Doufaya, Telgoua and Karmaye, of the department of Mayo-Danay, Far North region. Indeed, according to L’œil du Sahel, in late January, a herd of about 200 elephants destroyed 14 hectares of off-season millet fields, a cereal widely consumed in this part of Cameroon, during lean season.

“These elephants have destroyed a little over 14 hectares. If the production per hectare is estimated at 1.5 tons, the loss then totals about 21 tons,” explains Mr. Marana, the delegate of the agriculture district of Wina, which covers the villages of Doufaya, Telgoua and Karmaye.

“You will agree with me that famine is inevitable in the three villages concerned this year,” he said.

Such phenomenon, destruction of cereal fields by elephants, is recurrent in the Far North region, where conflicts between these protected species and humans are permanent, adding to the already precarious food situation in this part of the country, due to the advancing desert, which has been accelerated in recent years by climate change.

In January 2018, for example, Pierre Abolgo, the departmental delegate for agriculture and rural development for Logone-et-Chari, revealed that elephants that left Kalamaloue Park devastated nearly 10 hectares of off-season millet.

Brice R. Mbodiam