In August 2025, Louis Nkembi, founder of conservation NGO ERuDeF, was abducted by militia fighters in Cameroon’s Lebialem Highlands. He was held for two weeks, hidden in a secret location inside a forest. “It was a traumatic experience,” he recalls. “I can’t go back to that area until everything is resolved.” Though Nkembi was eventually […]
  • Dozens of protected areas in Cameroon’s anglophone regions, including parks that are home to great apes and other threatened species, have been swept up in a decade-long armed conflict between government forces and separatist militias.
  • The ongoing conflict has blocked conservationists’ access to forests, and exposed conservationists, local civilians and the region’s wildlife to violence.
  • Displaced people have turned to farming and hunting in forests in order to survive, while militias also hunt and camp in the forest.
  • Conservationists have explored new strategies to keep their work alive, including working with local citizen scientists, but say the task of rebuilding organizations in the midst of a humanitarian crisis is huge.

(Note that this article may understate the francophone government’s role in the threat to non-human animals.)