The central African states plan to mobilize 1,000 soldiers who will launch joint military operations to save their remaining elephants which are threatened by poachers in the region.

The announcement was made in a statement sent to Xinhua on Monday by the Central African Program Office of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

According to the statement, all the concerned states will mobilize security officers who will help to track down the 300 heavily armed Sudanese poachers who kill elephants in the forests of Cameroon, the Central African Republic and Chad.

The statement indicated that on the night of March 14, these poachers killed at least 89 elephants in southern Chad and that they are responsible for the death of at least 30 elephants in the Central African Republic since the beginning of 2013.

"This same group was responsible for the massacre of at least 300 elephants in Cameroon's Bouba N'Djida national park in the beginning of 2012, an action that forced the Cameroonian authorities to mobilize 600 soldiers to protect the country's national parks from the poachers," the document continued.

"The emergency plan which is estimated to cost 1.8 million euros, will require aerial support, ground vehicles, satellite phones, creation of a joint military command with a system for sharing information in real time and also requires the sending of a diplomatic mission to Sudan and South Sudan where the poachers come from," the statement said.

Even though the Economic Community of Central African States (CEEAC) indicated that they will fund the operations themselves, they urged the international community to help in the mobilization of additional funds in order to support the operations now and in the long term.

At the same time, WWF called on the governments and international institutions to consider illegal ivory trade as a very serious crime, and to adopt effective measures to stop the trade.