About 250 elephants were sighted, surprising occurrence in Borno state, Nigeria’s BokoHaram battlefield.
Herd of around 250 elephants was spotted in a part of the Borno state close to the borders with Cameroon and Chad.
According to RFI, it is the first reported sighting of elephants in the region since the Boko Haram insurgency began a decade ago
Tunde Marokinyo, co-founder of Africa Nature Investors said the sighting of the herd implies that Nigeria’s elephant population has effectively doubled.
The herd was spotted a few kilometres from Rann during a humanitarian mission carried out by helicopter.
Prior to the Boko Haram insurgency, hundreds of elephants were said to migrate through the region when Sambisa Forest served as a game reserve the size of Belgium and The Netherlands.
But all that changed In 2014 when Abubakar Shekau’s faction of Boko Haram set up camp in the forest.
Three major migration routes passed through the Sambisa Forest.
These same routes that follow water sources are used by insurgents to escape the military bombardment.
The heavy exchange of artillery fire between the military and the insurgents drove most of the big game away from the reserve.
