Wildlife guards are being evacuated from a gorilla reserve in the Congo as Tutsi rebels close in on the park.
The ranger station, which lies in the southern half of the Virunga National Park on the border with Rwanda and Uganda, was set up to protect around 200 of the world’s 700 surviving mountain gorillas.
Rebel fighters loyal to renegade General Laurent Nkunda have seized an army base from government troops two miles from the station at Rumangabo, in Kivu province.
Virunga park director Prince Emmanuel de Merode said: “The fighting started about a year ago, as soon as the fighting started the rangers were forcibly removed from the gorilla sector by the CNDP forces, Nkunda’s rebel army.
“We have not been able to go back since, we are hoping to, negotiations are continuously under way with the Congolese government trying to regain access to the sector,†said Virunga park director Prince Emmanuel de Merode.
Up to 50 rangers are being evacuated from Rumangabo where they have been living since Nkunda’s insurgents invaded much of the park last September.
“Unfortunately over the past month there has been a massive renewal of fighting with very intense fighting in the last few days, that obviously affects our work, it effects the security of the rangers who are on the ground trying to patrol the forest,†said Mr Emmanuel.
In the past decade, 120 Virunga park rangers have been killed in clashes with armed groups and poachers, making protecting the gorillas almost impossible and doing gorilla tours in the area.
“Nowadays in our forest it is very difficult to work because there are different groups of army who are in the park. You can see the FDLR, the Congolese army, the CNDP, it is very difficult to work,†said Innocent Mburanumwe, Director of the gorilla project in the Virunga reserve.
Around ten mountain gorillas were slaughtered last year in the Virunga reserve, which is Africa’s oldest national park.
With this situation gorilla tracking safaris in Congo has not been taking place for some years due to the insecurity brought by the fighting groups that have monopolized Congo forests
By Fred Bukenya