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Congo: Rare gorillas under threat of extinction by militia
Wed. May 23, 2007 09:25 am.- By Bonny Apunyu. -
(SomaliNet) After raiding the eastern Congo’s Virunga National Park at the weekend killing a wildlife officer, Congolese militia are threatening to slaughter rare mountain gorillas, officials said.
According to sources, some hree more local wildlife workers were injured in the attacks early on Sunday by Mayi-Mayi militia fighters on three conservation and tourism camps in the park, in Democratic Republic of Congo’s violence-torn North Kivu province.
On Tuesday, officials in Virunga, Africa’s oldest national park established in 1925, said the attackers looted the three sites, seizing arms and communications equipment.
According to WildlifeDirect, an organisation involved in conservation in Virunga, the area attacked is only two hours walk from a unique and isolated population of gorillas, which is home to half of the 700 mountain gorillas that remain in the world.
“This was an unprovoked attack on our Rangers and other wildlife officers who protect Virunga’s wildlife. And the Mayi-Mayi said that if we retaliate, they will kill all the gorillas in this area,” Virunga’s Park Director Norbert Mushenzi said in a statement distributed by WildlifeDirect.
During the raids, 13 other local wildlife workers were taken hostage by the militia fighters but were subsequently released, WildlifeDirect said.
Despite the end of a 1998-2003 war in Congo and historic elections held last year in the former Belgian colony, renegade militia and rebel groups still operate in the east of the country, raiding villages and terrorising civilians. -Reuters
News Category: Africa
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