A Benin Republic tour guide has been found dead in one of the country’s famous national park in the late hours of Wednesday last week, May 1st 2019.
The tour guide, Fiacre Gbedji, who went on a game drive with two French nationals visiting the Parc Pendjari in the northern part of the country bordering Burkina Faso went missing for hours, raising concerns for the management of the park.
According to a statement by the Olanma Ojukwu, in charge of Benin Regional tourism public relations at CTM Benin, and Nigerian tourism Consultant for Benin CCOT, the disappearance of the trio prompted the management of the park to dispatch 200 trained rangers and two 2 helicopters in search of the tourists.
The statements said: “The ultra-modern Pendjari tent lodge management alerted the authorities, who with the 2 helicopters in the PARC, and the over 200 trained rangers began the search of Benin side of the park. And yesterday, his body was found almost beyond the Benin security coverage area of African park. Reports so far shows the two French tourists were taken through Burkina towards Mali. It is not yet clear the people behind this act. It’s very hard to believe story in this part of the world. Indeed painful and pathetic.
According to the statement the African Parc group took over Benin national park and has since above 2 years transformed the park to a must visit park in the western part of Africa.
It said the CTM Benin tourism stakeholders umbrella President traveled to the region over the weekend to confirm developments, adding that stronger security measures has been put in place to secure the park from the neighbouring sides.
It added that the President of Benin whose total dedication to country’s tourism destination transformation abilities has since deployed relevant authorities to continue the investigation on how to find alive the 2 French tourists.
