Taraba State’s Gashaka-Gumti National Park is now at the centre of another looming international border crisis between Cameroonian and Nigerian communities, as wildlife located inside the nature reserve have been blamed for causing severe damage to farmers in both countries.
The development comes on the heels of claims by WildAid, an environmental non-governmental organisation that Nigeria’s lion population was on the verge of extinction, as it further said that over the last 50 years, the number of wild lions across Africa had plummeted from 200,000 to roughly 20,000.
Traditional rulers of communities around the border areas of Cameroon expressed concern that wild animals like elephants have been encroaching their borders from Nigeria and destroying their crops.
They added that whenever the Cameroonians complain or kill their wildlife, Nigerian rangers from the Gashaka-Gumti park attack them.
They further claimed that other animals like lions also attack their farm livestock, including the cattle and sheep that are raised nearby.
Reports gathered from a Voice of Africa programme on last Friday claimed that following a flurry of human-wildlife conflict, the traditional authorities in Cameroon are now pushing their farmers to quit farming near Nigeria’s Gashaka-Gumti National Park.
Wildlife officials claim that animals from the largest park in Nigeria have started entering Cameroon to eat crops. Village chiefs claim that some farmers killed the animals that were under protection in response and were then detained by Nigerian park rangers.
It said that due to wildlife damage to multiple maize fields, which devastated farmers, the communities on Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria fear imminent starvation.
The people claim that the villages in Banyo, a commercial, agricultural, and cattle ranching district, Ngoum, Katarko, Mayo Foorou, and Mayo Lelewal, were most severely impacted by the disaster.
According to the bulletin, Mohaman Gabdo Yahya, a senator from Cameroon and the traditional chief of Banyo, brought up the invasion of wild animals from Nigeria in bordering Cameroonian villages on Thursday.
Yahya claims that during the past two months, animals from the Gashaka-Gumti National Park in Nigeria have been wreaking havoc in border villages in Cameroon.
According to him, elephants and primates destroy maize farms while lions from the park slaughter and consume lambs and animals.
Yahya claims he is pleading with irate citizens to remain calm because harassed Cameroonian farmers retaliate by killing wildlife from Nigeria’s Gashaka-Gumti National Park, according to VOA.
He advised farmers and cattle ranchers to avoid expanding their agricultural holdings into the lush Cameroonian terrain surrounding the park and to instead move back to the areas where they had previously been farming or ranching.
According to Cameroonian wildlife officials, July was a time of harvest, and the yields drew animals from Nigeria’s park.
Villagers claimed that several animals were killed. Wildlife authorities confirm that animals were killed, but they deny knowing how many.
Traditional leaders in Banyo who visited the affected communities claimed that some Cameroonians had been detained for killing encroaching wildlife by Nigerian park rangers.
Traditional chief of Gashaka in Taraba State, Zubairu Haman Gabdo Mohamadou Sambo, claimed that since July, the Nigerian Army has helped rangers keep calm in the area surrounding the national park.
“Our people always live in peace and harmony even if there are Nigerian army bases nearby. Speaking through a messaging app from Gashaka, he said, adding: “We constantly try to promote peaceful cohabitation, especially at the border community.”
The conflict between humans and wildlife along the border has occurred before. The government of Cameroon stated in 2020 that crops had been ruined and seven Cameroonians had been killed by lions and elephants from Gashaka-Gumti.
According to the wildlife ministry of the Central African nation of Cameroon, locals retaliated by attacking and butchering some elephants.
The Gashaka-Gumti National Park, which covers an area of about 6,500 square kilometers, is thought to be Nigeria’s biggest game reserve.
Wildlife officials from Cameroon and Nigeria claim that increasing human activity in the park, including as poaching, illegal grazing, mining, fishing, farming, and logging, has resulted in recurrent clashes between people and wildlife.
Meanwhile, a statement released by the WildAid, on Wednesday, through its Representative in Nigeria, Kelechukwu Iruoma, in Lagos, said that it launched a week-long campaign on Wednesday to raise awareness about the threats facing Nigeria’s lions to mark World Lion Day.
“The crisis is most acute in West Africa, where there are only about 400 lions left, surviving in a few small isolated clusters.
“In Nigeria, lions are on the verge of extinction, with scientists estimating that there may be fewer than 50 adult lions left in the wild.
“In the past, lions roamed northern Nigeria in large numbers, primarily residing in the Kainji Lake National Park and the Yankari Game Reserve,” WildAid said.
The statement quoted Simon Denver, Senior African Representative for WildAid as saying: “Hunting for bush meat has seriously depleted lions’ natural prey base, while population growth and the expansion of agricultural land has badly eaten into their habitats.
“Lions in Nigeria and across West Africa need urgent help to prevent them from disappearing forever.”
Denver said that the intense pressures on lions’ natural prey caused by bush meat trade and the erosion of their habitats often force them to kill cattle for food.
According to him, the phenomenon brings lions into conflict with humans, who kill lions in retaliation, sometimes using poison.
He said that snares and traps set by bush meat hunters also often inadvertently cught lions and other predators.
“Lion populations in East and Southern Africa are feeling the same pressures – even in Tanzania, which is considered to be the stronghold of Africa’s remaining lions.
“Tanzania has the largest population of lions in Africa with about 8,000 animals left in the wild.
“They provide an important draw for Tanzania’s tourism industry, which generates around 1.5 million jobs and contributes around 17 per cent to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“It is not too late to save Nigeria’s lions but we need to act now to protect them.
“We urge the Nigerian government to update its wildlife laws to combat the threats facing lions and other wildlife.” the statement said.
WildAid stressed the importance of improving enforcement and anti-poaching patrols around national parks including working with communities around the parks to stop the illegal bush meat trade. “WildAid is also calling on all Nigerians to say no to Illegal bush meat as a way to ease some of those pressures on lions and other important species in the country,” he added.