Thank you all for your comments and concern. We are still waiting to find out who actually killed the gorillas last year. It is suspected that the lucrative trade in charcoal (some news papers are calling it Makala), which is an essential domestic fuel, was the motive. We have been writing much about ending the illigal charcoal trade. In the meantime we have some other news. On Tuesday March 18, Didi and Emmanuel and Balemba received information from a tourist operator in Jomba about another family of gorillas that had crossed over to the DR Congo part of Virunga National Park.
Initially, we thought it might be the Kwitonda family that had migrated to Rwanda in 2004. Of course we were very anxious to find more information and soon discovered that is was likely to be a new group! Whereas the Kwitdona group had sixteen individuals, this group has nine. The question remains as to whether this is a part of the Kwitonda group that has split off or an entirely new group that has crossed over from Rwanda.
We then checked with the Rwandese authorities who stated that it appears to be the 13th family from Rwanda who have crossed over to Congolese territory. The CNDP rebels have also confirmed this as they have control of trekking tours to see this particular family as well the Mapuwa family, and the Nyakagezi family (from Uganda).
Since September 2007, ICCN has completely lost control of the Mikeno gorilla sector which is in the hands of the CNDP rebels who had refused access to our Director, Mr Mushenzi in February this year.

We will continue to update you as news comes in. Diddy and Innocent.

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This a major breakthrough. Honore Mashagiro has been arrested for allegedly masterminding the mass killing of Mountain Gorillas in June and July Last year. He was in a position of great responsibility, and allegedly used his authority to promote the destruction of forest for charcoal to make money. This threatened the gorilla habitat, so when the rangers tried to protect the forest, he allegedly orchestrated the gorilla massacres to discourage them. Many of you will remember those terrible days when we discovered the burned remains of Safari, and the the bodies of the rest of the Rugendo family, including Senkwekwe, the silverback.

Senkekwe, shortly after the Massacre in July last year

The charges against Mashagiro were brought against him by the state, through ICCN, the wildlife authority, and is testimony that the rule of law can be brought into effect, even when it concerns powerful people. It is definitely a moment of hope for all of us, but obviously we await the outcome of a trial before saying any more.

Results like this take time, but it is so important never to give up. We don’t yet have all the details, but will update you in the coming days.

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This is Diddy, and we have received some very good news from members of the community. The Lulengo family has just had a new baby. So this brings the total to three babies since the war started in September. Obviously, this has to be confirmed, and we’re still very worried, but this makes us very happy.

You may remember the Lulengo group from last year. It was a very agitated year for the members of the group. They started the year as part of Mapuwa’s Group, but after a fierce fight that lasted three days, Pili-Pili , the solitary silverback, was able to take two adult females and one sub-adult female, and form his own group. But this didn’t last long. Lulengo came along in August, fought with Pili-Pili, and took the females.

We don’t know which of the females had the baby. Probably the Maganye, because Mafaze, the only other adult female has never had offspring and is probably sterile.

Any thoughts on a good name for the baby gorilla?

This is a photo of Lulengo, the happy father, taken back in August last year.

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This is Emmanuel. I’ve copied an extract from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs report on the political and humanitarian situation in the area in which we work. OCHA do a fantastic job at keeping all of us informed on the wider political situation.  Infact, we collaborated with them in December and January on how to best supply the Refugee camps (called Internally Displaced Peoples’ Camps - IDPs) with fuelwood and charcoal.

Long ago, like many other conservationists like us in eastern Congo, we switched from being biologists to being political analysts and negotiators. We did this out of necessity because that is what conservation has become in such turbulant times. The animals can look after themselves if you leave them alone - it’s the human context that needs attention. So reports and feedback from organisations like OCHA are a lifeline if we are to understand the turmoil in which we operate.

I’ve copied this one in because there are a few developments that may prove to be important in determining the success of our efforts in Virunga. Some are positive. Others are very worrying. My comments are in brackets in italics

SECURITY AND POLITICAL CONTEXT

• Thanks to the national and international facilitation the CNDP and the Mayi Mayi returned in the Goma Peace Process. On 8-9 March all the signatories of the “Actes d’engagement” and the facilitators met in Goma to settle the Mixed Technical Commission on Peace and Security.

(CNDP is Laurent Nkunda’s movement. They are more centrally organised, so they are capable of making decisions. It’s an important step that they are re-engaging in the peace process, although there is still a very long way to go. And, as experience has shown, militias don’t always stick to a peace agreement, especially as there are some insurmountable obstacles to overcome, namely the disarmament issue (Nkunda’s men do not want to disarm without guarantees for the safety of their kin), and reintegration into the national army (Nkunda’s men will never leave their homeland in North Kivu).

• Clashes between FDLR and CNDP, as well as between FDLR and Mayi-Mayi were reported north of Bunagana in Rutshuru territory.

• Fighting between FDLR and PARECO were reported in Kashebere (20 km west Masisi). Rivalry about area control would be the cause of these clashes.

• Reports of fighting between FDLR and PARECO in Luofu region (south Lubero) on 10 March.

(this fighting is further west, and doesn’t directly affect the gorilla sector, but shows how widespread the conflict has become, making it increasingly difficult to come to a quick settlement - the longer it lasts and the more it spreads, the harder it will be to resolve. Unfortunately there are no real winners in this war. Everyone loses, but some lose more than others, especially the poor and the vulnerable).

• No security incidents towards humanitarian workers were reported this week. However, humanitarian partners are still confronted to governmental administrative bothersome, as well as to road barriers and illegal taxes that slow down their activities.

(I hope that’s not our Charcoal road barriers that they’re referring to!!)

(the following is a sobering reading on the suffering of the people of North Kivu. Many of them still live in internally displaced camps in the most attrocious conditions. Our efforts to provide fuelwood and charcoal was a small gesture, but the scale of the suffering is overwhelming)

HUMANITARIAN SITUATION
Alarming situations / Early warning

• Protection – Sexual violence: an alarming number of sexual violence victims is reported in itchanga area (east Masisi). Since beginning of 2008 more than 350 cases were notified and taken in harge by a local and an international NGO in this locality. An average of 15 new cases per day is reported. An urgent sensitization for the struggle against sexual violence has to be run in this area.

• Protection – Exactions: while the security in the Masisi area IDPs sites is relatively good, securityround the sites has to be improved. The majority of IDPs in this area leave theirs sites during the day to work in the fields around where they are exposed to exactions from armed groups as well as from ivilians. UNHCR and OCHA in Masisi advocated with MONUC for an increase in the number of foot atrols in this area.

• Health – Child mortality rate: a very preoccupying child mortality rate is reported in the Masisi hospital due to a poor quality of health services. The INGO working in the area is helping governmental health staff to improve the quality of services. 13 deaths were notified in the nutritional centre and 10 other in the paediatric service in February.

• Health – Cholera: while the cholera situation in Rutshuru town clearly improved (more than 100 cases eported from 18-24 February and only 8 the week after), the number of cases in three IDPS camps north Rutshuru are not decreasing. About 25 cases per week are notified and taken care by INGO MERLIN. The Goma IDPs camps are also facing an alarming number of cholera cases. Lacks of jerrycans and soaps are reported to be one of the main causes of this situation.

• Food security: due to the suspension of WFP distribution (except for nutritional programmes) in Rutshuru territory as well as in the Kitchanga-Kirolirwe area (Masisi territory) further to the security incidents the UN Agency faced in both localities, lack of food is damagingly felt by IDPs. A WFP food assessment should be done next week in both localities of Kitchanga and Kirolirwe in order to resume food distribution.

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I’ve been accompanying an important patrol in the southern part of the gorilla sector, around Kibumba, the only functional patrol post in the sector. It was a regular patrol with 12 rangers on the southern slopes of the Mikeno and Karisimbi Volcanoes.

Kibumba Patrol Post

It was quite an eventful patrol. We tracked some poachers who were laying snares (a very unpleasant way of killing wildlife). 13 wire snares were dismantled.

Ndeze with some of the snares that we recovered

While we were doing this, we heard a silverback chest-beating, and tried to locate the gorilla. It was fairly obvious that this a solitary. The gorillas quite rare in this area, but a small group of 4 unhabituated gorillas are known to range in this area, but because of that they’re almost impossible to see. Still, all the more important to have removed those snares.

The patrol, on our return

We heard another group on the slopes of Mt Karisimbi, near the Rwandan border. We didn’t take the patrol in that area because we had seen tracks of other groups in the area. We know these tracks to be those of Rwandan military, who often come into Congo in that area. Last month, the rangers laid an ambush to some poachers in the park. Some of the poachers escaped and while they were being pursued by us, they got caught by a Rwandan patrol, and taken to Rwanda.

We’ll be going back into the park tomorrow to double check to make sure that there are no more snares.

Anyway, this patrol happened thanks to funding from this blog, so we’re extremely grateful for your support

Ephrem, at WildlifeDirect

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This is Diddy.  Yesterday was an important day in Congo.  It is was International Women’s Day, which have a very special significance for us, especially in North Kivu, where we have yet to experience the peace that we have been hoping for all these years.

Our mothers, wives and daughters organised a March through Rumangabo and into the village.

The March was organised by Madame Virginie Munyaga, who is also the Treasurer for the Southern Sector of the Virunga National Park.  She is very educated and respected in Rumangabo.  Madame Virginie made a very strong statement to the population.  It was a statement of protest to all those who were involved in rape and other forms of brutality against women.  She also condemned those that were destroying their children’s future by destroying the forest for charcoal and killing the gorillas.

Madame Virginie, giving her speech yesterday 

Children were part of the march - we hope that they will not live through what we have had to endure.

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I have been reading the discussion between Francis and Nicholai with considerable interest, as it has dominated our thoughts for some time now. Incase you haven’t read them, they exchange comments on the last post on how appropriate it is to visit the gorillas under the current circumstances.

I don’t want to sound judgemental, everyone has their own reasons for taking a strong position in this conflict and it is indeed a complex situation. The politics of North Kivu are not straight forward, and no side in the conflict comes out entirely clean.

However, at WildlifeDirect, we have made the decision not to engage with CNDP (Laurent Nkunda’s rebel movement) under the current circumstances. In this respect, our position is 100% in line with that of ICCN, as the legitimate Government institution.

Let’s start with some simple facts:
- According to the International Rescue Committee, an average of 45,000 people are dying every month in CNDP held territory since the rebellion was started by Laurent Nkunda. His rebellion has all but derailed a peace process that was Congo’s best chance of ending an 8-year civil war that provoked over 4 million deaths.

- Many of the schools and other essential infrastructure around the Gorilla Sector have been destroyed. The International Criminal Court currently has a file that lists the evidence that Nkunda forces have been forcefully recruiting large numbers of child soldiers, some as young as 9.

- Over half a million rural people, the poorest on earth, have be forced out of the homes by the CNDP rebellion, and into displaced peoples’ camps around Goma. They are living in atrocious conditions.

- Senior CNDP officers have declared that they will execute any of the Virunga rangers who enter the territory that they hold.

We are desperate to get back to the Gorilla sector, and indeed, have been invited to do so by the parallel rebel administration (in exchange for funds). However, we cannot under any circumstances play a part in the atrocities of North Kivu by helping to fund the rebels.

Unfortunately, tourism revenues at Jomba are used to fund the rebel troops. While we can’t stop anyone from paying $300 to the visit the gorillas, I would urge you to think very carefully about the consequences of funding the rebel administration before doing so.

Emmanuel at WildlifeDirect

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This is Balemba. We are just beginning to develop the informer network around the gorilla sector. The approach is to work on the edge of the forest.
So far it is working quite well. Two of the informers from the local community have manged to set themselves up as a team of herders. The rebels have livestock, and use local Bashumba herders to manage the livestock for them. The two are now herding the rebels’ livestock and are able to discuss the status of the Gorillas. This is the information that they have managed to obtain:
A group of gorillas was found near the Bukima Patrol Post, on the flanks of Mt. Gashore. According to them, this is the Rugendo family that was so viciously attacked last July. Apparently one of the black backs had had a fight, probably with a solitary male in the forest. This is not surprising as the blackbacks are very vulnerable to an aggression by solitary silverbacks wanting to take over the group. Apparently the blackback has many wounds as a result of that fight.

A worrying development is that there is beginning to be more and more livestock, and some of it is regularly going into the park. But there is still nobody living around Bukima because people are still very scared of the rebels. Only Luzaria, the widow that I spoke of in the last post, who lives on her own with her two sheep, is living near Bukima.
Bikenge is now a tourism spot. The rebels have started to open footpaths, because they say that large numbers of tourists will be coming soon. Trackers and new rangers have been recruited by the rebels, although most of them have no idea what they are doing. One of our informer’s brothers has been hired as a tracker and may be able to provide us with regular and detailed information.

We are all quite scared, but continue to work as best we can.

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Balemba has made considerable progress in building a small team of local community members to monitor the situation in Mikeno.  At the moment there are two small teams of local agriculturalists forming, one in Bukima, one from Jomba.  We will not be giving you their names, or publishing their photos, because they are operating in rebel territory, and it could put their lives at risk.  We hope that one day, when things have settled down, that we will be able to present them to the public, and that they will get the recognition they deserve.

This is Balemba’s report on progress so far:

We had our first meeting today, Sunday, in the afternoon.  We were joined by Felix Balibua, of the Rumangabo Youth Alliance, and the two team leaders, one from Jomba and the other from Bukima.  Both are internally displaced and live near Rumangabo with relatives.  They climb up to their fields during the day, to try to keep their crops from being destroyed, but cannot stay at night because of insecurity.  They have reported that the rebels have their main base at Jomba, and a secondary base at Bukima.  So they have taken over the ranger’s patrol posts, and are well entrenched and settled for the long haul.  This is bad news, as it will make it all the more difficult for the rangers to recover their patrol posts.

The rebels have forbidden anyone from getting close to Bukima or Jomba, except for a few people herding livestock.  Infact, there is no longer anybody actually living in Bukima, other than an old widow and her two sheep.  She has refused to move.  They have, however seen a group of 6 gorillas in the corn fields between Bukima and Bikenge about a month ago, but since then the fields have been destroyed and they don’t come out of the forest any more.  The group is probably the Rugendo group, whose seven other members were massacred in July last year.  They regularly went out of the park.  It needs verification, but it would be very good news that the six are alive and well.

The rangers’ patrol post at Bikenge has been left in a terrible state by the rebels.  They no longer live there, but they are regularly present in the area.  When they appear, they catch farmers and impose forced labour, including transporting water, and planting marijuana for them, which is now growing all around the patrol post.

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This is Emmanuel in Goma. We are struggling to make progress in the gorilla sector. It is incredibly frustrating, but we just have to keep trying. While massive progress has been made in stopping the charcoal trade coming from the park, we are completely stuck when it comes to getting close to the gorillas to protect them. The rebels are making sure that the rangers can’t get into the gorillas sector. They’ve threatened to kill any rangers who try to get to Bukima or Jomba, and have placed landmines on the road to Bukima. They have said that conservation groups can come, if we bring funding for them, but that’s unacceptable to us.

But we have been working on a few new ideas, that may work. Some of you may know Balemba who set up the Virunga Youth Alliance. He is an extremely dynamic ranger who is really keen on sport, his community, and of course the Mountain Gorillas. He thinks that he can work with the displaced people through the Youth Alliance, to set up a simple monitoring system around the gorilla sector. At the moment local farmers live down in the valley, but walk up to Bukima every day to cultivate their fields. It is accepted by the rebels, and provides us with an opportunity to put some basic monitoring in place.

It won’t be perfect, because they can’t go into the forest, but they can certainly act as our eyes and ears around the gorilla sector. This may even give us some insights into how to make progress through local community members.

It’s a long shot, but certainly worth trying. We will be giving them a small stipend through your donations, and we’ll report on what’s going on at Bukima at least once a week.

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