5,000 elephants killed in Republic of Congo

BOMASSA, Republic of Congo (AP) - A wildlife official says that about 5,000 elephants have been killed by poachers over the past five years around the Nouabale Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo.

Thomas Breuer, a senior technical official of the Wildlife Conservation Society project in the park, says that authorities must take action and double guards around the park.

Breuer says that while poaching around the park is intensifying, poaching inside is not as prevalent. He says the number of elephants inside the Nouabale Ndoki National Park have grown to an estimated 7,000.

Nouabale Ndoki National Park was created in 1993 and covers an area of 4,000 square kilometers in the northwest part of the Republic of Congo.

Cameroon, which borders the Republic of Congo, recently launched a military offensive to flush out elephant poachers in a remote park on its other border with Chad.