Poachers slaughtered 86 African Elephants in less than a week, hacking off their tusks for the illegal ivory trade.  33 of the animals were pregnant females.

This happened in southwest Chad, where just 30 years ago as many as 150,000 elephants roamed the area were Chad, Cameroon, and the Central African Republic meet.  Today, as few as 2 thousand elephants from that original population are left.

According to Celine Sissler-Bienvenu of the International Fund For Animal Welfare (IFAW), "Even if the conditions were right, which they are not, it would take more than 20 years for this population to recover".

Authorities believe the poachers were armed with AK47s and traveled on horseback.

The central African region has seen much political instability over the years, and anti-poaching efforts have met with limited success.  Anti-poaching agents are outnumbered and outgunned and it is not uncommon for the poachers to kill them.

The ivory is believed to be on its way to China.