DR Congo: Rebels Take Over Virunga National Park, Threaten Mountain Gorillas

By Larry Habegger | Permalink | No Comments | September 5th, 2007 | Trackback

Virunga National Park, home of the rare mountain gorillas in eastern Congo on the borders with Uganda and Rwanda, has been overrun by a rebel army fighting government forces. Some 10,000 refugees have fled to Uganda and park rangers have been forced to evacuate, leaving the gorillas unprotected. Fighting has occurred in the park and is likely to continue, with the danger to the gorillas high. About 100 of the last 700 gorillas alive in the wild live on the Congo side of the park, and nine have been killed this year, allegedly by the rebels. Eastern Congo was the site of a five-year war beginning in 1998 that was blamed for the deaths of some 3.8 million people. On-again off-again conflict in the area has raised fears of a resumption of all-out war.

Home » Disasters, Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), War/Regional conflicts

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