• Chad's informal cattle exports to Cameroon rose 20.3% in 2024

• Livestock trade worth $63M bypassed customs, boosted Chad’s rank

• Smuggling thrives in Far North; other regions saw sharp declines

Informal cattle exports from Chad to Cameroon rose again in 2024, according to a report on cross-border informal trade by Cameroon’s National Institute of Statistics (INS).

The sales, which bypass customs and veterinary controls, increased by 20.3% year on year, further cementing Chad’s position as Cameroon’s main livestock supplier, the INS said.

Taking advantage of the porous border between the two countries, especially through Cameroon’s Far North region, the main transit corridor for Chadian livestock, Chadian herders sold cattle worth 35.69 billion CFA francs (about $63 million) to Cameroon in 2024. These sales represented 49.8% of all informal trade between the two countries that year.

The INS noted that the cattle trade helped Chad consolidate its position as Cameroon’s second-largest informal supplier, after Nigeria, accounting for 27% of informal imports in 2024, valued at 71.7 billion CFA francs. That figure marks a 15.1% rise following a decline in 2023.

Overall, informal imports from neighboring countries totaled 265.7 billion CFA francs in 2024, up 5.6% from a year earlier. The report said these imports led to major revenue losses for the state and mainly passed through the Far North (49.4%) and North (20.8%) regions, where smuggling networks for fuel, livestock, and manufactured goods thrive. Fuel and lubricants accounted for 22.1% of these flows, followed by live animals (14.6%).

While smuggling activity remained strong in the Far North despite disruptions linked to Boko Haram, it declined elsewhere. Trade flows through the Southwest region fell 38.7%, weakened by the Anglophone crisis, while imports in Adamaoua (-17.5%) and the East (-3.3%) also dropped due to poor roads and insecurity caused by armed groups, the INS said.

Brice R. Mbodiam