Endangered Mountain Gorillas Shot Dead by Rebels in DRC

AWF has learned from the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN) that insurgent forces led by the dissident General Laurent Nkunda have invaded Virunga National Park's south sector in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and killed at least one silverback mountain gorilla.

This area serves as precious habitat for six groups of endangered mountain gorillas habituated for tourism and five lone silverbacks that are also monitored daily. A total of 82 individuals reside in this sector.

Hostilities forced ICCN's park staff and their families to flee the park's Jomba, Bikenge and Bukima patrol posts on December 20, 2006. This left the park and its mountain gorilla population extremely vulnerable.

On January 11, 2007 rebel insurgents succeeded in shooting and killing a silverback. The silverback, named Karema, was formally a member of the Lulengo Group, but had been solitary for the last few years. Unfortunately, due to continuing insecurity, ICCN rangers were only able to access the park and verify the killing on Monday January 15. These rangers acted at tremendous risk to their own lives.

Mountain gorilla Ruzirabowba is a silverback like Karema, who was killed by rebels in the Congo. Photo by IGCP/Jose Kalpers.

A second silverback mountain gorilla was killed, though authorities have yet to identify the individual.

General Nkunda was a commander in the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD), a main rebel group which controlled most of eastern Congo during the country's five-year civil war. Nkunda dissidents continue to conflict with both government forces and local people in addition to the national park. As recently as November, Nkunda's forces attacked DRC troops in eastern posts; this fresh fighting forced more than 10,000 Congolese people to flee into Uganda.

International Gorilla Conservation Program (IGCP -- a coalition of AWF, Fauna and Flora International and World Wide Fund for Nature) officers on the ground continue to work tirelessly with park authorities to collect information about this loss and other potential damage. However, the situation in the area remains extremely tense and unstable.

Led by IGCP Director Eugene Rutagarama, IGCP is coordinating an extraordinary meeting of the transboundary Core Secretariat, which includes the Executive Directors of the three regional parks authorities -- ICCN, Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), and the Office Rwandais du Tourisme et des Parcs Nationaux (ORTPN) -- to discuss and coordinate an emergency plan to manage and overcome this crisis, including trying to influence the regional and international community to find a lasting political solution and stop the fighting.

In the meantime, ICCN and affected conservation groups, including IGCP, have set up a committee to solicit and coordinate emergency support, including food, emergency equipment, and medical supplies for the remaining and displaced park rangers and their families. In a letter dated from January 11 2007, the Director General of ICCN, Mr. Pasteur C. W. Balongelwa, expressed his agency's thanks to IGCP's leadership in coordinating a response to this crisis and asked for further financial support.

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For further information:

Amy Wiedemann

Senior Programme Design Officer

-4493

awiedemann@awf.org