Can Elephants Survive South Sudans Civil War?

Southern Sudan knows violence. After being wracked by modern Africa’s longest civil war, from 1983 to 2005, in which millions of people were displaced or died, South Sudan gained independence in 2011.

The region’s elephants, originally estimated after the war to number about 5,000, suffered extreme losses too—but amazingly some survived. As migratory animals, they fled into hideouts deep in the bush, where they holed up out of the line of fire.

In December 2013, when South Sudan’s president, Salva Kiir, accused his former vice president, Riek Machar, of planning a coup, fighting erupted, and many lives were lost.

From South Sudan’s capital, Juba, Paul Elkan—director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s South Sudan program—explains that in this new, and ongoing, conflict the country’s remaining elephants are in serious jeopardy, along with other animals such as giraffes, tiang antelope, and buffalo.

What’s happening in South Sudan seems to be one of the most desperate stories about elephants trying to survive in Africa.

Yeah. One of the most important things to understand about this is that the wildlife in this area has already gone through a 22-year civil war. And many populations were hammered during that war.

How many elephants are in South Sudan, do you estimate?

Before the long civil war, South Sudan had an estimated 80,000 elephants. After the war, in 2007, we did an aerial survey, and our estimate indicated that 5,000 elephants were alive. But after further research, we’ve revised our estimate and believe there are no more than 2,500 elephants in South Sudan.

How has the new war affected their plight?

These elephants are veterans of war, and if the right conditions are in place, they can recover. Prior to the outbreak of the current war, in December 2013, the outlook for elephants was fairly positive. Things were getting better.

There was still ivory trafficking and threats. But there was ecotourism associated with antelope migrations, and even though many species were reduced, they were still at densities enough to recover.

So what’s excruciatingly difficult now is that as soon as the war broke out, we saw big increases in commercial bush-meat hunting to feed the soldiers. Also, due to the disruption of conflict, we haven’t been able to carry out the normal duties of wildlife protection. So there’s a current vacuum.

In the southern part of South Sudan, things are relatively stable. But there’s still occasional heavy fighting in the north. The northern third is where a lot of the fighting is taking place, and it’s very inaccessible to wildlife professionals.

It so happens that the northern part of this area is also very important for elephants.

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