(Business in Cameroon) - The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Cameroon issued a worrisome report revealing that nearly a million people in the Mayo-Kani department, in the Far North, are grappling with acute food insecurity. The UN body blamed the crisis on the destruction of over 30 hectares of crops by elephants, resulting in significant agricultural losses.

The recurrent destruction of cereal fields by elephants is an ongoing issue in the Far North region, where conflicts between this protected species and humans persist. The consequences of the elephants' wandering exacerbate the annual cereal deficit in this part of the country, attributed to the encroachment of the desert.

In recent years, this process has been accelerated by climate change, further pushing the Far North region of Cameroon into a state of almost constant food insecurity.