From the Hunting Report:

All Clients Safe: A Robbery/Shooting In Cameroon
(posted July 11, 2007)

There has been an armed robbery in Borge Ladefoged's Ngong Safaris camp in Cameroon. All clients are safe, and there is no indication the robbery, however dramatic, points toward a deterioration of security in that West African country.

I first learned of the June 20th robbery from subscriber John M. Searles, who was on safari in an adjacent concession with Jose Chelet's Ngoko Safaris. Seems five robbers, armed with AK 47's, burst into the dining hall of the Ngong Safaris camp just as three Danish clients and their wives had sat down for dinner. The robbers fired numerous shots before fleeing with an undisclosed amount of cash, a satellite phone, several cameras and various personal items belonging to the clients. The robbers also took the clients' hunting rifles, which were found the next day by police.

I will have more details on the robbery in the August issue of The Hunting Report. I report it here, in brief, because exaggerated and erroneous accounts of the incident are beginning to surface. Suffice it to say, the robbery was indeed terrifying to those who experienced it. But the good news is, it appears the robbery was just that - a robbery by local criminals, not by Sudanese poachers or some other kind of organized criminal band. At this writing, two of the five robbers have been caught and police are confident they will catch the other three, all of whom are said to face capital punishment.

Here at The Hunting Report, I believe this was an isolated event and that steps being taken by the operators in Cameroon and by the government are sufficient to address the situation. I would personally not waffle on a 2008 safari to Cameroon as a result of this incident.

The larger issue here may be Cameroon operators' tendency to insist that clients bring large amounts of cash with them. Operators in some other countries make the same demand. There is no firm proof that big cash requirements by outfitters contributed to the robbery, but common sense suggests at least some linkage. We have raised this cash issue before and now believe it is time for the industry to address it in a forthright manner. I'll explore this more fully in the August issue, but I herewith open the floor to anyone who would like to comment on the matter. Simply click on the hyperlink below to send me your comment. - Don Causey, Editor/Publisher.

quote:

Originally posted by mboga biga bwana:
The robbers also took the clients' hunting rifles, which were found the next day by police.

Guess they didn't steal any ammo and the 7.62x39 ammo didn't fit ...

It's Africa... $1000 is a lot of cash -- the real question is how the heck did 5 guys w. AKs get close enough to the camp to rob them w.o. being noticed. (I presume the dining hall is out in a hunting area somewhere, and not in a city.)

That's not good. I hunted with Borge in 2004 at his northern camp. It was a great hunt, but he was getting pressure from the local tribes and they were starting to illegally graze their cattle in the hunting area, which is not allowed by the Cameroon Govt.

This was a fairly remote area. Not good if there are armed gangs of robbers there now. It isn't too far from the border of Chad.

Hate to hear about something like this happening. Check ot my pst on the hunting pages about this hunt if you want.

Mac