Situation on Guidiguis National Parc: Gov’t Adopts Broad-based Measures

The locality of Guidiguis, MayiKani Division of the Far North Region, on February 6 and 7, 2025 experienced some social tensions. The population is manifesting in rejection to the creation of a national parc for ecotourism by a Prime Ministerial decree of 7 February 2020. Within the framework of promoting peace and social cohesion, a concertation meeting on public order bringing together members of government and other stakeholders took place at the Star Building on February 12, 2025. It was chaired by the Prime Minister Head of Government, Joseph Dion Ngute and the objective was to come up with measures that will restore peace and preserve the authority of the State. Amongst the causes of the tension, is the name of the parc, ‘Ma Mbed Mbed,’ which the Tupuri people consider an insult from the Mudang village. To the former, it is a provocation used to describe the private part of an uncircumcised man, while to the latter, it means an area which is filled with water, or better still, a swampy area. The Minister of Environment and Nature Protection, Hele Pierre notes that the border locality of the parc with Chad has marshlands and water. Politically, it has been a platform for political fights with slogans such as “The government will seize the land of the people and give it to elephants,” as explained by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Territorial Administration, representing the Minister. As a result, a possible change of name was recommended, as well as the reinforcement of ecoguards and taking into consideration the legitimate demands of the population. It was also recommended for measures of compensation for the population whose farmlands are destroyed by elephants be envisaged, and the construction of tourist sites to boost the development of the locality. Envisaging measures of appeasement that includes traditional, political and religious leaders when there are tensions with the objective of promoting living together, a general transversal evaluation at the level of the government and the population on the opportunities to be offered by the parc, and a strict follow-up of the sources of inter-tribal conf...