Rebel Attack on Virunga National Park Ranger Patrol Kills Three in DR Congo

31/10/2012

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

25 October 2012

For more information go to www.gorillacd.org/blog 

 

Rebel Attack on Virunga National Park Ranger Patrol Kills Three in DR Congo

Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo – Armed Mai Mai rebels attacked a ranger patrol in the early morning Thursday in Congo’s Virunga National Park, instantly killing two ICCN park staff and one soldier who was assisting the rangers. In addition, three soldiers were wounded, one critically.  The confrontation ended with five Mai Mai PARECO rebels killed as well as two wounded and captured. The wounded rebels are currently in custody at the hospital in Vitshumbi. The attack took place at Mwiga Bay, an area just west of the fishing settlement of Vitshumbi on Lake Edward in the park’s central sector, where a dramatic increase in the presence of armed militias has led to a growing number of attacks on park staff.

The park’s Chief Warden, Emmanuel de Merode, said after the attack, “The civil war has brought an influx of militias into the park, intent on poaching and attacking the local population. This is bringing overwhelming pressures on our small team of rangers whose duty it is to protect the wildlife and the people living in and around the park. Once again, we are deeply shocked and saddened by the deaths of our colleagues.”

The outbreak of civil war in May this year has provoked the withdrawal of the military from many areas of Virunga National Park, leaving the park’s staff vulnerable to the many illegal armed groups that frequent the area. These include the FDLR, a Rwandan militia group widely considered to include combatants responsible for the Rwandan Genocide in 1994, and Congolese militias known as Mai Mai PARECO and Mai Mai PRM.  These armed groups have become increasingly involved in poaching for ivory and bushmeat and from illegal fishing on Lake Edward, as well as looting the local population.

Virunga Ranger Paluku Matembela, killed in today’s attack, leaves behind a six month-old son whose mother died in childbirth and their 14 year-old daughter. Over 130 rangers have been killed on active service since the beginning of the civil war in eastern Congo in 1996. Virunga National Park recently set up a “Fallen Rangers’ Fund” to assist the widows and orphans of rangers killed on duty and has received start-up funding from the United States government, the European Union and from some private foundations and individuals.

Rangers on patrol in the central sector of Virunga National Park

Virunga rangers patrol the central sector where an important population of elephants have come under increasing attack in recent months.

 

Photographs are available at:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/sx57sxh5th0opb7/fWekwSyjXh

 

Additional information available upon request.

 

Editor’s Notes:

Virunga National Park, Africa’s oldest national park (established in 1925) and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979, is home to approximately 200 of the world’s mountain gorillas and a small population of Grauer’s eastern lowland gorillas. Formerly known as Albert National Park, Virunga lies in eastern DR Congo and covers 7,800 square kilometers. The park is managed by the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature, the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN).

Virunga NP Rangers:  Some 274 park rangers protect Virunga National Park in eastern DR Congo, a region affected by a 12-year civil war and political instability. The park is home to mountain gorillas, eastern lowland gorillas, chimpanzees, okapi, forest elephants and buffalo, among other wildlife. The rangers have remained active in protecting the park. Poaching, wildlife trafficking and habitat destruction remain the key threats to the survival of the wildlife in the park.

Mountain Gorillas are critically endangered, with approximately 790 remaining in the world, about 480 in the Virunga Volcanoes Conservation Area (shared by DRC, Rwanda and Uganda) and just over 300 in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda. The results of a census conducted in the spring of 2010 show that the number of Mountain Gorillas living in the tri-national forested area of which Virunga forms a part increased by 26.3% between 2003 and 2010 - an average growth rate of 3.7% per annum. Virunga National Park’s Gorilla Sector is currently under the control of rebel group M23.

The Congolese Wildlife Authority (ICCN) and its rangers work throughout the country to protect the National Parks of Congo and their wildlife from poachers, rebel groups, illegal miners and land invasions. Rangers worked throughout the civil war to protect the 5 parks of eastern DRC, rarely receiving a salary, with over 130 killed in the last 15 years in Virunga National Park alone

 

For additional information and/or photographs please contact:

Emmanuel de Merode, Director of Virunga National Park:

edemerode@gorilla.cd or +243 99 344 8133

LuAnne Cadd, Communications Officer:

luanne@gorilla.cd  or  +243 99 887 4292