Nairobi - Mountain gorillas living in a Congolese national
park controlled by rebels battling the government are doing well
despite the conflict, the director of the park said Tuesday after
rangers gained access for the first time in 15 months.
Rangers have not been able to access the gorillas in the Virunga
National Park, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, since rebel
Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda's men forced them out.
However, a deal has now been struck to allow the rangers to begin
working in the south of the 7,800 square-kilometre park again.
'We were very worried about the mountain gorillas...but ICCN
(Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature) rangers have
already seen many of the mountain gorilla families and we are happy
to report that most of them seem to be doing well,' Virunga National
Park director, Emmanuel de Merode, said in a statement.
Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP)
has been involved in fierce battles with the government and other
militia groups over the last few months.
Over 250,000 people have been displaced by the fighting.
The World Widlife Fund (WWF) said that despite the deal in the
southern area of the park, the rest of the park remained insecure.
The WWF has been distributing firewood from renewable sources to
tens of thousands of internally displaced living in camps around the
national park.
'WWF believes that the needs of people displaced by the fighting
and the gorillas are inextricably linked,' said Dr. Susan Lieberman,
Director of WWF International's Species Programme.
Virunga was set up in 1925 to create a sanctuary for mountain
gorillas and other species. It runs along the border with Rwanda and
Uganda. At the last count 380 mountain gorillas lived there.
The gorillas' habitat is being threatened by the conflict and
encroachment for farming and settlement, the WWF said.
USA
Your Talkback on this Story