As conservationists strive to protect wildlife, chimpanzees are becoming more aggressive in the Kimbi Fungom National Park. In November 2019, chimpanzees attacked a farmer in the park on his way to the Esu village (the main gateway into the Fungom section which is above 85% of the park). Although, the farmer escaped the attack, the November 24 2020 attack on another farmer in the same area ended on a very sad note
This attack which took place on the early hours of November 24, 2020, saw a chimpanzee strangle a man to death. This man called Ntong Ejaah was killed in front of his son by the aggressive Nigerian Cameroon chimpanzee. This man had transported his son on a motorbike very early in the morning from a lowland farmland to the steep hill at Kedzuh, a popular farmstead in Esu village (inside the park) to the summit of the hill. He went back to carry his cargo. On arriving at the summit, just few meters away from his son, he was ambushed by chimpanzees. He fought a brave surviving battle with the chimpanzee and after feeling the strength of the chimps; he screamed this son to run away and report the case to the village. The son did same. The fon of Esu, Kum Achuo II dispatched a hand fold of hunters and farmers to go and look for the helpless man. He was found in a gutter around the spot where he was attacked with a deformed face.
This is very strange in Esu land in particular and the Kimbi Fungom National park in general.
There has been a mixed feeling about the recent attacks by chimpanzees especially at this time that the park is overloaded with internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from peripheral communities. Is this a cause of competition for food or just another dimension of human-wildlife conflicts?
