Wildlife officials of the Menoua division recently launched a 5-hour long operation that ended with the arrest of two people in Balessing, a locality some 15 kilometres from the divisional capital, Dschang.

The two were being trailed following intelligence reports that pointed to their connection with the illegal trade in leopard skins in the West region. The main suspect demonstrated his professional skills and mastery of the ins and outs of the illegal leopard skin trade as he proved to be  highly crafted in elusiveness, moving  law enforcement officials around for the greater part of the morning of the 7^th of April 2014 before he was nailed down in Balessing.

He was so cautious that he even consulted an oracle through a witch doctor early in the morning of that day, to know whether law enforcement officials would arrest him or he could go ahead and do his business without any worries. According to sources close to the case, he was told by the oracle that he should go ahead with his transaction without any fear. Unfortunately for him, this prediction proved momentously wrong as he was nabbed at about 1 pm in Balessing alongside an accomplice.

The operation that led to the arrest of the leopard skin traffickers was carried out in collaboration with the Gendarmes from the Brigade des Recherches in Dschang and with the technical assistance of LAGA – an international Non-Government Organisation specialised in wildlife law enforcement.

This situation as described by the world body is what is affecting Cameroon’s wildlife today and in trying to bring the situation under control, the Government of Cameroon with technical assistance from LAGA in 2003 launched the national programme on effective wildlife law enforcement whose main objective is the effective prosecution of illegal wildlife dealers.

This has come a long way and it is still pushing hard to get traffickers behind bars after 11 successful years. As the operation in Dschang shows, many years after, with dozens of leopard skin traffickers arrested in the West Region, the fight is still very strong and denying to flail as many would have wished.