Wildlife Conservation: DRC conflict threatens mountain gorillas

AFP reports that the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo has forced dozens of rangers to flee Africa’s oldest national park, leaving hundreds of threatened mountain gorillas at the mercy of rebel fighters and poachers.

Wildlife officers escaped into the forest when fighters loyal to renegade general Laurent Nkunda occupied part of the park as they launched their march on Goma, the main city in the east of DR Congo, which is now surrounded.

The area is home to more than half of the world’s 700 remaining mountain gorillas as well as 20,000 hippopotamus, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

Unesco named Virunga a World Heritage site in 1979 and placed it on the organisation’s endangered list in 1994 when a first civil war broke out in the country.

DR Congo’s Environment Minister Jose Endundo Mononge said that the fighting between the army and Nkunda’s rebels poses a great threat to the park and would hit tourism income, while opening up worrying opportunities for poachers.

Published by Mike Hitchen, mikehitchenconsulting.com
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