Dear All,

About 10 days ago. I received a whatsapp message in real time from Larry (some of you may remember him), "Boss something very bad is happening at the camp". ME [whats going on Larry], Larry "the jihadists are burning the camp", ME: [shit larry tell them to call the bloody army]. OK Boss!

Needless to say the army didn't come! The jihadists arrived on motorcycles in the middle of the afternoon fired off a few bursts in the air to scare off the villagers, and were there for 4 hours burning down the camp and destroying many years of hard work! They even returned the next day to finish off what was left!

Our camp Arly Safaris, the first hunting concession and camp ever to be set up in Burkina over 30 years ago, was attacked and burnt to the ground by Islamist Jihadists! Since then they have also attacked a number of other hunting camps and burnt and destroyed them as well. In our camp fortunately, no one was injured or killed, I am not sure about the other camps.

This is a huge setback for everyone, starting from you the client, without your support the conservation fueled by hunting dollars would not have been possible, me the agent, the concession owner, the people who worked in these camps who depended on this income for their very survival, the poor villagers who depended on their share of the game meat (a third of all the meat by law goes to the surrounding villages), the chef de poste and his team of village scouts and finally all the wild animals, which will no doubt be gone forever if this situation continues. In the years that I have been hunting there, all the big elephant bulls have been killed not by hunters but by the poachers who are now killing the females, young ones, anything showing even the smallest bit of ivory. Their only sanctuary was in the hunting areas, the Parks are out of bound for everyone else and only reserved for Poachers!

This is especially heart breaking to me as I considered this area, my own little slice of Africa and while I arrange hunts all over Africa and the world, Burkina was always a special place. Being an ex French colony, French hunters have hunted in Burkina for a long time, but when I first discovered such a place existed precisely three American hunters had been there and I got to know all of them. The first advert I ran said more Americans had walked on the moon than hunted in BF and I was right at the time. Over the years, I was to change that, taking more American clients to Burkina than any other outfitter or agent.

The local people, some of the poorest in the world, are honest, friendly and ready to give everything they have for a client. By international safari standards they were ill trained and diamonds in the rough, often showing up with holes in their clothes and toes sticking out of their old hunting boots left behind by a long-gone client. But not a single one was dishonest or had a bad bone in his body. The fact that they couldn’t speak English was difficult with clients, but our group of translators made things work. At least most of the time! A funny story comes to mind, a returning client told me Arjun I could see 4 roan and the translator told me to shoot the one in the middle! It later turned out the translator could only see three.

In Burkina clients hunted with local PHs, a unique experience for those who did not need hand holding and the guidance of a white PH. While they may not have stood equal to the best PHs in Africa, they did not lack courage or bush skills. Ishmail hunted quite a few lions over the years with clients and even survived a mauling by one! Junjwa would turn in to a cat on the final approach moving fast from bush to bush bringing you right up to the game. Buwaba much more cautious but produced some of the best trophies every year, Omaru a hit with all clients as he made them feel comfortable and relaxed and always had a smile and laugh even when things were going south! All of them out of work now, with no way to feed their families and watching helplessly as the game they loved and protected so dearly is now vulnerable with no protection whatsoever!

When I first hunted in Burkina, the head PH guided me with an old 458 with a water pipe clamp holding the barrel to a piece of wood which was a stock a long time ago. I resolved this by exporting a bunch of CZ rifles and we were back in the game. The trucks were beaten up old junks, left in the bush like farm tractors, fired up before each season with parts from everywhere and left to weather the heat and rain after the season ended, they looked like crap but for the most part they ran. The camp was by no means 5 star or luxurious but comfortable. In that beastly heat starting from end of February, the air conditioners struggled to keep the guest chalets cool, but you realized how hot it was when you stepped out. In late February the harmattan winds and sand storms that blew in from the Sahara, covered everything with fine dust and blanketed the place in a fog that lasted for a few days at a time, this was something to be experienced. I once shot a great buffalo in the middle of a sand fog. Seeing a lion, buffalo and elephant within 10 minutes of leaving camp one afternoon will always remain in my memory!

The wildlife found in our concession included the rare west African cheetah, lion, leopard, roan, elephant, hippo, crocodile, korrigum to mention a few of the main species.

The money from the hunting and tips from the clients paid for salaries and the livelihood of over 20 families that worked in the camp as well as the chef de poste and his team of village trackers who accompanied every client on their hunt. How they will manage now is now anyone’s guess. In March just before I left camp, Junjwa one of the Phs came and sat with me for half an hour and thanked me profusely for coming and spending time there each year and encouraging them to do a good job and bringing clients and helping them earn a living. Looking back now it seems like it was his final thank you!

One generous client sent money every year to educate a boy who used to work in the kitchen. This year I had to tell him this was no longer possible not only because the camp had been destroyed but also the boy’s school had been shut down by the jihadists who now seek to turn the clock back to medieval times.

This is what hunting in Burkina was all about……

The north of Burkina on the border with Mali has always been a hotbed of terrorist activity. But it never effected the hunting areas all these years. The situation in Mali is very complicated and there is a great documentary well worth watching on youtube called Orphans of the Sahara, which will give you a better understanding of the problems in that part of the world! A very tough savage land and tough people, exploited by anyone who can!

The East of Burkina has always been quiet but in the last few months it has suddenly seen a number of attacks on gold mine workers, gendarmerie, army, moderate islamic scholars and government officials, ranging from all out-gun fights to IEDs, resulting in many casualties of the poorly trained Burkina army. In light of these developments I had already cancelled the 2019 season! From all accounts it seems that the intention of the jihadists is to set up a base in the forested area of the Eastern portion of Burkina Faso from which they will be difficult to dislodge. No doubt they have taken ideas from Boko Haram in Nigeria who played the same game in the Sambisa forests in the North of Nigeria, in to which the kidnapped school girls were taken!

This tragedy is not just a human story but the loss of the last bastion of wildlife left in West Africa. The largest but fast disappearing concentration of elephant, lion, buffalo, roan and species of antelope unique to West Africa. Yet again this story has been brought to the attention of the public by the hunting community. There is no wildlife tourism in Burkina so a country totally off the map for any wildlife loving tourists except hunters. But it is time for everyone to unite hunters as well as non-hunters and those that just look on and turn the page or click on the next news link, to stop for a moment, spread the word, share this message, write to powers that be and do something before it is too late. Please please share this story and copy and paste it on your own Facebook timelines. In this day and age when viral videos of someone twerking to a groovy beat can generate a million views overnight, surely this warrants more. To do nothing would be a crying shame!

Apart from sharing this story, if anyone has any ideas to help in anyway. Feel free to send me a PM.

Thank you for your time.

MERRY CHRISTMAS and lets pray for better times in Burkina Faso!


Arjun Reddy
www.huntersnetworks.com
30 Ivy Hill Road
Brewster, NY 10509
Tel: +1 845 259 3628
2019, DSC booth # 1222
2019, SCI booth # 4209

Dear Arjun,

this is a realy sad story...

I hope, the government is strong enough to get the controll back.

Best wishes.

F.

Alrjun this is in deed terrible news. Of my 14 safaris in Africa the Burkina Faso hunt was one of the best if not the best safari ever. Got to know the camp staff who were friendly and helpful and would move heaven and earth to make you happy.
Junjwa was my PH and while he could speak no English and I could speak little french he turned out to be one of the best PH I have ever had . I remember fondly that he was carrying an old Mauser 375 with the broken stock wired on with bailing wire they were amazing trackers. Mr Arly visited the camp while we were there .He was an accomplished educated man that could speak 3 languages well including English . He was investing heavenly in the camp and was proud of the jobs he had created for the local people. While I was in camp the 7 new CZ rifles with scopes arrived.
I have many fond memories of that hunt and I am glad i booked when I did.
So sad Jim

So very sorry to hear this sort of news.

Not good news! Hopefully, everyone survives the turmoil.

Very sad to hear. I am not at all surprised. I have a friend who went. He came back with stories about the extremists that were eye opening.

Northern Cameroon will be next. Boco Haram is flexing its muscles there already.

Hi Arjun. I am John Weyandt, I had a great time at your camp in Burkina Faso. I was with my old friend the late Barry Style. I really enjoyed the trip and traveling in Burkina Faso. At the time the country seemed very peaceful and non threatening. I remembered passing Mosques and Catholic Churches within a stones throw of each other. Very sad to hear this. I’ll see you at SCI

Arjun, thank you for the update on the situation in Burkina Faso. This is very sad news as I was looking to returning to Burkina Faso a year from now, as we had a very good safari while I was there. Just tonight I was looking at my trophies on my wall from Burkina Faso and it really hit me hard that such a wonderful safari would be no more. Yes, it was somewhat primitive experience, maybe like Hemingway and others experienced Africa. I am really glad that I was able to experience an Africa of times gone by. I only hope that the government gets a hold of this situation before it becomes un-repairable.

Mis deseos mejores, para ti y lost tuyos

Hoot

I remember Burkina fondly. I really enjoyed that safari with Numa as my PH and with my passable Cajun French had a lot of fun.
Very sad to hear this.

quote:

Originally posted by Bockhunter:
Dear Arjun,

this is a realy sad story...

I hope, the government is strong enough to get the controll back.

Best wishes.

F.

Very sad indeed!

But, I have a very sneaky feeling the government is not going to do anything about.

But use it to get “anti-terrorism” foreign aid!

I really hated reading this, another place I will most likely never get to see now,, my only advice would be to find the cutest animal you can find and kill it , tell the world the jihadists did it and don't forget to name it.

To use a line from the movie Sahara "Its Bloody Africa ,,Nobody Cares"

Executive Outcomes could have cleaned up that situation in a weekend. Unfortunately, the UN and the bleeding-heart do-gooding wimps in power in the Western nations at the time put an end to that organization. I wonder how long it will take for this influence to spread South of the equator? Perhaps the Chinese will have to show the African powers how it's done.

Sad state of the world.

Arly was a game rich concession and the west African Savanna is amazing and beautiful. I feel very bad for Larry and the rest of the crew.

Hopefully one day it will be huntable again. Till then I hope some guy or gal operating a drone out of Las Vegas is hunting Jihadis.

I am just glad no one is camp was injured. Hopefully some wildlife survives the jihadi savages.

Mike

It is very sad to hear.

What I liked most about my Safari to Burkina was the fact that I didn't have a PH per say. It made for a somewhat wilder experience to me.

quote:

Originally posted by Russ Gould:
Executive Outcomes could have cleaned up that situation in a weekend. Unfortunately, the UN and the bleeding-heart do-gooding wimps in power in the Western nations at the time put an end to that organization. I wonder how long it will take for this influence to spread South of the equator? Perhaps the Chinese will have to show the African powers how it's done.

EO would have cleaned their clocks.

The pestilence of militant Islam is everywhere.

What terrible news Arjun - Africa, its own worst enemy! Now I will really have to buy you that beer in Reno!

So very sad. I'd hoped to hunt there one day soon. But kudos to you for having the integrity to tell the cold, hard truth about a place you love. God's Peace to you sir.

The French government has sent in paras and the Foreign Legion in the past in situations like these. But only when their former colonies have asked them to do so, and when major population centers have been threatened. I suppose we can hope.

Good luck to your operation, Arjun. And to the people and the game animals.

Arjun, thank you for taking the time to explain the situation in detail, and giving us an insight into what hunting life was like there and what you think the future may hold. I hope the situation somehow resolves itself, but these are uncertain times. I wish you all the best moving forward.

Tragic. I just shared it on Facebook.

Shoot the Jihadist and put a trophy fee on them.

Very sorry to hear this news. I hope things turn out better for you Arjun. Wish you a prosperous New Year

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:
Shoot the Jihadist and put a trophy fee on them.

We just need to convince the Chinese that eating soup made out of Muslim jihadist testicles will give them a hard on and Muslim jihadists will become endangered species velly, velly chop, chop!



.

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Robinson:
The French government has sent in paras and the Foreign Legion in the past in situations like these. But only when their former colonies have asked them to do so, and when major population centers have been threatened. I suppose we can hope.

Good luck to your operation, Arjun. And to the people and the game animals.

The french did a good job on pushing out islamists from Mali in 2014...search for Operation Serval on youtube..the french really deserve credit for what they do in Africa..

Arjun..very sorry this happened to you...I was contemplating Burkina in a near future..

Yup one thing the French are good at. Lets hope they mobilize

quote:

Originally posted by Pondoro:

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Robinson:
The French government has sent in paras and the Foreign Legion in the past in situations like these. But only when their former colonies have asked them to do so, and when major population centers have been threatened. I suppose we can hope.

Good luck to your operation, Arjun. And to the people and the game animals.

The french did a good job on pushing out islamists from Mali in 2014...search for Operation Serval on youtube..the french really deserve credit for what they do in Africa..

Arjun..very sorry this happened to you...I was contemplating Burkina in a near future..

Agreed and Africa has its ups and downs. Arjun you have to remain positive and look forward to the ups mate.

Thank you all for your words of support and feedback.

I just got these pictures!!! The first photo is the main sitting area, with the bar behind and the swimming pool to the right. Many of you have been been there and slept in some of these chalets. The guys who took the photos were scared to go in to some of the building and walk around too much in case there were some IEDs placed there....



One of the chalets







The thatched roofs, framework, ensuite bathrooms, wiring, have all burnt down










In better days:























Inside my chalet, where I spent many months over the years!



On the last night of a safari, they would do something quite unique in Africa, which is a French custom I guess, they would present the trophies to the hunters and tell stories of the one that got away and it would be a laugh all around. And of course they would gather around for their tips .







Karim the camp manager who has worked there for 20+ years and Biebs



Special clients from NYC, am glad you got to experience BF!



Me and the crew



Bad winds blowing, an army patrol dropped in, they were hunting jihadists!

If I may request please share this story as much as you can to create awareness, as hunters we owe it to the big-game of Burkina which will all be gone no doubt if this situation carries on.

For those looking to hunt West Africa, especially Lord Derby Eland, Bongo, don't put it off. If Cameroon goes that's the end of it!

Arjun Reddy
www.huntersnetworks.com
30 Ivy Hill Road
Brewster, NY 10509
Tel: +1 845 259 3628
2019, DSC booth # 1222
2019, SCI booth # 4209

Thank you for sharing your story and how discouraging things appear to be at times. I am sure you have a lot of great memories associated with the pics from a better time.

That was a damn good kitchen - best food ever on asafari (or a vacation).

Sad to see it all destroyed.

Mike

Arjun:

Hell of a mess no denying that much.

Looks like the structures are still
mostly sound. What is damaged can be fixed
it looks like from these pictures. It'll take a whole lot of cleaning up once you can get back in there to do so.

Wiring, costly but, can be replaced easy
enough. Thatched roofs burn mighty hot but, shucks it's just grass and a lot of work for
sure. That can be replaced along with the beams and what structure it takes to hold it up.

Start gathering supplies and financing, the evil doers will be gone before long. We all hope at least.

Take heart, at least so far they didn't level everything. Hopefully they're done and gone elsewhere now.

Best wishes to all of your crew.

In Germany in the Army one of our guys set fire to a thatched roof building. Sure was hot from 50 yards across the street. A month later we went back thru there and couldn't tell which building it was that burned. New roof of thatch, coat of paint and folks busy at their doings already.

George

Sad indeed! May the world wake up and pull it’s head out of the sand or maybe it’s a....

Condolences Arjun. Wish I had ideas to help.

Pardon my language but the jihadist have to be some of the dumbest muther fuckers on the planet! Scum of the earth!!!!!

Sorry to see Ajun!

The world is quickly nearing a point where jihad will no longer be tolerated. Many will pay the price for allowing the acts of a few.

quote:

Originally posted by chuckmaxman:
Pardon my language but the jihadist have to be some of the dumbest muther fuckers on the planet! Scum of the earth!!!!!

I would even go further and say they are not even human beings!

What a terrible misguided stupid destructive act

This is a real shame loosing such a nice camp with the local people loosing their lively hood. The guys were all so friendly and accommodating. Breaks my heart to see the burned out structures which were decorated with local art.

Just glad to hear no one was hurt or killed. Larry is a super guy who made my trip due to his english skills.

Don't abandon the place. Make sure
everyone is safe and have a few around
as safety watchers while a few others
clean out the burned stuff. In time air
and weather will reduce the burnt stink. Once you get back to rebuilding, the insides will need to be sealed to cut the burnt stink so folks can live in it again.

Such a remote area I don't have much idea what can be taken that far for sealer. KILZ is wonderful for such, but, the fumes are dangerous to be around. IF your crew is safe, maybe lime/water whitewash. But, that stuff will burn skin on contact and put out eye's if it gets in them.

For now, try to get the smaller rodivals cleaned so they can air out. Until it's safe, just that will make a great start. Let the crew know now that plans are being sorted out to rebuild as soon as it's safe and they'll have jobs back. In the meantime have them scout around for poles that can be used to rebuild the roofs. Have the electrical wire pulled down and rolled up for future use as tie wire for the roofs and thatch bundles. Rolls small enough they can be hidden from prying eye's, yet handy to get to when the time comes it's needed.

Limbs for roof structures can be cut at a distance and stashed out of sight. You'll have to come up with a way to pay the crew even if it's partial wages compared to what they were getting.

I'd just bet there's enough members here that would be willing to help fund wages and operating money to get started. In turn, these funds can be used as 'advance down payments toward future hunting' once the area is safe and the operation is open again.

Just some thoughts to help ease the pains and tears, and take your mind off the shock and damages. See if they can salvage things from the ashes. Surely not everything was totally destroyed. The main thing is safety, when any are working around the area, have others out at a distance keeping watch for intruders and locating building materials for later use.

THe timing is right with SCI going on to gather a group for discussions on how to go about making things happen sooner than later.

Best wishes,

George