In intense heat and visibility of less than a few metres, British Army troops are picking through the Gabon jungle on one of their most heart-rending missions yet.

Crouched in thick undergrowth outside a forest camp they are also striking a blow against extremists. Alongside Gabon park rangers they spring an ambush on a group of men sat around a campsite.

Poaching is the new frontier in the war on terror – pitching endangered elephants and the British Army against the forces of evil.

In Gabon, shameless extremist groups are butchering rare forest ­elephants in a gold rush to fund their activities all across Africa with poachers selling the ivory for £65 per 1lb to the Asian black market through a wide connection of ports in Dar es Salaam and Mombasa.

Baby elephants, with tusks only a few inches long, are also slaughtered.

The soldiers are tasked with protecting one of the world's most iconic species from being poached to extinction (
Image:
Liam Bagnall)

Christian Mbina, Gabon Parks technical director, told us: “We’re convinced on all evidence we have that the money raised by poaching goes to fund terrorism.

“The network and movements of Boko Haram are known all over Africa now. The same way Al-Shabaab are involved in ivory poaching in the east of Africa, Kenya and Tanzania, Boko Haram do the same here. The big terror groups in Africa now live from piracy and poaching.”

Desperate authorities have sent an SOS to the British Army to help them defend their last remaining elephants.

In response, 16 hand selected infantrymen, predominantly from 2nd Battalion The Rifles, are stationed in the Mokekou Jungle Training Camp near Lope.

Journalist Andy Jones with a rotting elephant carcass after it was poached (
Image:
Liam Bagnall)

They are working alongside overworked and unarmed park rangers – many going into battle in jelly sandals or flip-flops – against slaughter gangs who carry rocket- propelled grenades and AK47s.

Intelligence shows these poachers are linked to extremist group Boko Haram in Nigeria and have killed 25,000 forest ­elephants in the past 10 years in one Gabon region alone.

To stem the tide in ivory, the Army has been to Kenya, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Ethiopia in the past five years in a bid to train 145 officers capable of providing info on the ground about poachers’ movements.

Finishing the latest stage in Gabon this month they have already trained 80 to a high standard. One intelligence officer, who has been on several of the trips, ­revealed the border areas are the biggest poaching weak spots. He said, “Animals and poachers don’t respect borders.

A group of suspected poachers is apprehended (
Image:
Liam Bagnall)

“Poachers manipulate this by operating in border regions where it is easier to slip in and out. Therefore we need to make sure there is instant communication and shared intelligence through all countries.”

Poachers will stop at nothing to snare elephants, often using children of pygmies – a threatened indigenous people on the edge of the Gabon forests – as mules.

Three pygmy children were arrested carrying 40kg of ivory on their backs earlier this year. The situation facing Africa’s elephants is critical. On the ground in Gabon, the Army have done everything from train rangers how to arrest poachers, seal crime scenes for gathering evidence and even set up WhatsApp groups among park managers to help them communicate immediately.

Rangers are also being trained to use AK47s to fight back, but critically Gabon authorities haven’t yet decided whether to arm them full time.

The soldiers are being put through rigorous training drills by British experts (
Image:
Liam Bagnall)

Previously rangers have simply tried to catch armed poachers off guard, run in and snatch their weapons – a deadly game.

Ranger Daniel Ebiaghe Essebe, 30, from Minkebe, has faced down deadly poachers numerous times. “Just imagine you’ve got a ­machete but the one you’re tracking has a gun. We were patrolling, six of us, around 8am one day.

“We came past a river and we heard voices. We split up and in an ambush we caught them in the ­middle. The poachers charged. They had Kalashnikovs, guns and knifes. How do you arrest them?”

We’ve been given exclusive ­access to secret drills. In unbearable humidity we shuffle silently through the jungle as the rangers, assisted by British troops, spring an ambush to arrest ­poachers during an ­exercise.

The poachers are arrested, handcuffed and then shaken down for all evidence – hunting knifes, pieces of ivory or maps – and camps are smashed to pieces so they aren’t used again. Aside from ­bullets and grenades, the rangers also must dodge injury or disease in terrain that’s hours away from any treatment.

A troop wearing camouflage on the look out for poachers (
Image:
Soldier Magazine)

Lance Corporal Roseanna Rowbotham, 24, a paramedic adds, “We’ve been ­teaching rangers to treat gunshot wounds and snake bites – there’s loads of Gabon vipers and black mambas out here. Their medical knowledge is very ­limited, so it’s a thrill seeing the rangers learn how to save lives in an emergency. If they get injured out here they have little chance of outside treatment.”

As well as the threat of snakes and malaria, British troops also face being charged by elephants or torn apart by gorillas.

Corporal Gyanendra Rai, 31, First Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles is the expert tracker tasked with imparting years of military experience in the jungle. Swooping upon any snapped branch, footprint or parted grass, Rai can tell exactly how old a trail is just by how browned the bent grass is.

He reveals one of the poacher giveaways is carefully placed gun cartridges which are used as arrows to mark their progress through the trees or signal where ivory drops may take place.

Lance Corporal Ernest Kaseta, 2 Rifles, leads a jungle patrol (
Image:
Soldier Magazine)

Beyond each bush is a potential lethal danger. Rai says, “If the elephants have a calf they are quite aggressive. They will charge. But if we encounter gorillas they will definitely attack. When a gorilla ­attacks – stay calm, stay low – if you try to run away they will smash you and tear you apart as they think you are a rival.”

The jungle training has also been ­invaluable for British troops. Colour Sergeant Sean Kirkham, 32, is a veteran of tours in Afghanistan and Iraq and says the jungle is the hardest terrain.

He says, “Because it’s so humid, it’s hard for the body to cool down and ­regulate its temperature. Cuts take longer to heal. There’s no other place like it, that’s why it’s critical we’re out here ­developing younger soldiers. It’s a good news story to be seen to be helping ­anti-poaching but, for the individuals out here, they’re developing themselves personally.”

The remains of a baby elephant after it was killed for its tiny tusks (
Image:
Liam Bagnall)

As we move through the jungle, a dead adult male forest elephant lies, shorn of tusks, baking under the scorching heat. But Christian Mbina has fresh hope the work of British troops will prevent many more dying in this way.

He said: “They are not just heroes for me, or for Gabon but heroes for the whole world. We head out to war and my rangers need techniques of war. That is what the British give us. Wherever the poachers are in the forest, we are coming to track them down with zero tolerance.”

Captain Dan Lee, 35, of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, has been ­providing logistical support to the rangers in Gabon and says the biggest battle to save the elephant lies ahead.

“There’s a relatively small number of eco guards and they have a lot of ground to cover to defend the ­elephants. But they are amazingly motivated and they’ve taken our ­lessons on board with great ­enthusiasm. I have every faith in them.”