Gorilla Protection

Category: Threats | Date: Oct 31 2008 | By: paula

Despite the fragile peace, civilians spent another night out in the cold for fear of returning to their homes last night. We are awaiting for the latest news from our friends on the ground in Goma, but in the meantime it seems that diplomatic efforts are underway in earnest.  Monuc reports that “The presidents of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, Joseph Kabila and Paul Kagame, have agreed to attend an emergency summit on the crisis in Congo, the European Commission said Friday.The summit will be held in Nairobi, a neutral city. Indeed Nairobi has been the hub for peace talks for Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia and the Congo in the recent past.  To be effective, this meeting has to be different. There have been peace talks, agreements, and ceasefires in recent years, yet none seem to have brought about lasting peace.

This quote from the Special Representative of the Secretary General in the DRC says it all

“It is not the peace agreements which make peace. It is of course the will of the signatories which makes peace.”

An online vote on the Monuc website reveals that 76% of voters do not believe that the Amani program (which aims to move to disengagement, the restoration of state authority and facilitating the return of internally displaced persons and refugees in the province) will bring about lasting peace.

The Enough project has people on the ground and has this to say on their website “The immediate crisis should not distract the world from a larger truth: peace in the Congo – and indeed the Great Lakes – requires a comprehensive strategy, robust diplomatic engagement, and a strong and capable peacekeeping force. It also requires the world’s sustained attention. Intermittent and inconsistent crisis management must be replaced by a broader effort to deal with the drivers of endemic insecurity and atrocities.

The January Goma agreement – which secured a ceasefire between the Congolese government and 22 armed groups – is effectively dead. The CNDP has taken control of a critical strategic corridor, stretching from Kibumba to Rutshuru, and has done so without facing effective military resistance or a real cost for its actions. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in the last several days, including many who were living in camps that were overrun by Nkunda’s fighters. This brings the total number of displaced, since the latest round of fighting began in late August, to more than 200,000. Hundreds of thousands of civilians are now cut off from access to humanitarian assistance and many relief agencies are evacuating staff, virtually assuring that the mortality rates in eastern Congo will rise to even more grotesque heights.

Incapable of slowing the CNDP’s advance toward Goma, poorly disciplined Congolese government forces have fallen into disorder and now threaten the civilians they are obligated to protect, reportedly with rape and looting. Hindered by insufficient resources to stabilize the region, the UN peacekeeping force – MONUC – has been used as a foil by both sides, and anti-UN sentiments are on the rise. Vulnerable Congolese civilians lack protection, and Congolese human rights defenders are at risk of reprisals for speaking out against the renewed violence.

To read more and their recommendations go here

The Enough group advises activists to  Call your members of congress and ask them to urge the Bush Administration to take these steps to prevent the already catastrophic situation in eastern Congo from spiraling further out of control”.

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Tags: CNDP, Conflict, Congo, DRC, Laurent Nkunda, Virunga National Park, wildlifedirect

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 31 2008 | By: paula

 A ceasefire has been announced by Nkunda and the situation in Goma is quieter today but still tense. Our friends on the ground continue to iform us about the state of confusion, disappointment and abject fear.  Eyewitnesses say that the humanitarian situation is ‘dire’ with thousands of displaced people looking for a safe place to set up. While NGO’s have left Goma to the safety of Gisenyi on the Rwanda side of the border  Congolese civilians are not allowed to cross and sadly have few choices. There is no food or water in Goma.  Access to other towns is blocked by armed militias. The BBC describes those attempting to return to IDP camps getting shot at. They say that there is nothing there anyway as the former IDP camps have been looted and burned.   There are few NGO’s still providing support on the ground. Even Monuc have evacuated their non essential staff in fear that Nkunda’s troops will break the ceasefire and attack Goma.

Rangers this is from Mongabey: Five days after rebels occupied Virunga Park’s headquarters, thirty-nine wildlife rangers are still unaccounted in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). During the takeover, which included fighting between the Congolese army and the rebels, many of the rangers fled into the forest.

The rangers who fled do not have food, water, or shelter elsewhere in the park. In addition, so long as they remain in the park they are bystanders in a civil conflict. “These people have devoted their lives to protecting Virunga’s mountain gorillas - whose survival now also hangs in the balance.” Kümpel adds.

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Tags: CNDP, Conflict, Congo, Laurent Nkunda, rebels, Virunga National Park

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 26 2008 | By: paula

Conflict in eastern  Congo is once again in the headlines, once again it’s very bad news.

Emmanuel on Gorilla.cd reports

“Fighting at Rumangabo started at 0400 today between the rebels of Laurent Nkunda and the army. It has now totally engulfed the park station and our Rangers have been forced to flee into the forests for their lives. The rebels now are the only occupants of the park station at Rumangabo. This has never happened before. This is a serious time. We need to get our 50+ Rangers back to safety in Goma, 45km south of Rumangabo. The main road is blocked because of the fighting so they are walking through the forests of the park south, to Kibumba, about 20km away, where we aim to pick them up in trucks. We are trying to maintain phone contact but they don’t have much battery life in their phones”.

Emmanuel has made an appeal on Gorilla.cd and any donations made here will go directly to support these rangers during these difficult times. I’ve spoken to some friends on the ground who say that the situation is extremely bad.

An ABC news report on Monuc website reports that “Rebels loyal to renegade Gen. Laurent Nkunda have seized a major army camp in eastern Congo in heavy fighting Sunday that sent thousands of civilians fleeing, U.N. officials and rebels said. An unknown number of soldiers, rebels and civilians were killed in the renewed fighting in North Kivu province, civilians said.

Government troops raced down the road north from the provincial capital of Goma to reinforce a counterattack Sunday morning. One tank careened into a group of fleeing civilians and killed three teenage boys”.

This is the second time that Nkunda and his rebels have attacked Rumangabo. Thousands more are now fleeing through  the forests and aid agencies say that the fighting jeopardises the delivery of aid to the now malnourished victims of this escalating conflict.

More reports here on the Guardian and the BBC who state that the fighting is continuing and an unknown number of people have been killed. More than 200,000 people are said to have fled the area since the end of August.

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Tags: CNDP, Laurent Nkunda, Mountain Gorillas, rumangabo, Virunga National Park

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 24 2008 | By: paula

The situation in eastern DR Congo around Rumangabo remains very bad according to Monuc who has just reported that the CNDP attack on Rumangabo on 7 October, has left over 15,000 people displaced and fleeing or living in makeshift camps. They state that in a recent visit they found Rumangabo had been “virtually emptied of it inhabitants”, and these who had returned had suffered a campaign of “systematic lootings by the armed forces of the DRC (FARDC)”. Emmanuel reports on the Virunga Park website that rangers have been able to prevent any looting of the Rumangabo Headquarters of the the Virunga National Park and while many rangers have returned to Rumangabo but their families are still in the temporary camp for their own security in Goma.

Efforts however are underway to try and halt the cycle of violence and the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday urged an immediate ceasefire by all parties to halt the resurgence of violence in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

A number of organizations are trying to raise awareness and international reaction including blogs like Peter Godspeed who predicts that “The war the world ignored, at the cost of more than five million dead since 1998, is exploding once again” and Abayomi Azikiwe writing about the historical background and who thinks that the UN is posed for greater intervention in the Congo.

The main concern being raised in the news is the humanitarian crisis resulting from recent fighting which puts the civilian population at great risk and is hampering humanitarian operations. There is universal condemnation for the recruitment and use of children by armed groups, and the continued use of sexual and gender-based violence.

Despite all the attention the rhetoric is escalating, rebels have rejected the call for a ceasefire and the UN is poised to strengthen the Monuc forces in Kivus, while President Kabila himself has been on Congolese television appealing to the people of eastern DRC to take up arms and defeat Laurent Nkunda and his rebels.

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Tags: CNDP, conflict in Congo, DR Congo, ICCN, Kivu, Laurent Nkunda, rumangabo

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 14 2008 | By: admin

As part of the of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (UNEP/CMS), also known as the Bonn Convention, will declare 2009 the Year of the Gorilla (YoG) on 1 December at its ninth Conference of Parties in Rome.

Partners in this campaign will be the Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP), in cooperation with UNEP and UNESCO, and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA).

The CMS convention brokered the CMS Gorilla Agreement on the conservation of gorillas and their habitats in the ten African gorilla range states. This legal agreement  aims to secure the survival of gorilla populations in the wild.

The YoG campaign will work for the implementation of the CMS Gorilla Agreement by supporting conservation action in gorilla habitat. Other aspects will be the funding and training of rangers, support for scientific research, development of alternative sources of income, e.g. ecotourism, as well as education and awareness raising. Interested parties will be given the possibility of supporting specific projects presented on the website (www.yog2009.org).

WildlifeDirect is seeking your ideas on how to celebrate the Year of the Gorilla

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Tags: , CMS, gorilla, UN, Year of the Gorilla

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Category: Threats | Date: Oct 12 2008 | By: admin

Photo Marie Frechon/MONUC “Nearly 100,000 Congolese have been displaced in the last three months alone, and given the population in the areas attacked in the past few days, as many as 30,000 additional people could be forced from their homes”. Christian Science Monitor. 

Although the CNDP rebels have left Rumangabo, the situation on the ground is still dire because of the presence of so many armed militas in the area who are threatening the local population.  Alan Doss of the United Nations peace keeping force, Monuc, has raised concerns about harrassment and abuse by armed groups, including FARDC, the FDLR and the CNDP and warns that there are fifty thousand armed men in North and South Kivu. Monuc has sought the support of the United Nations Security Council for troop reinforcement to protect civilian populations in North Kivu.

In a letter to the Medical relief group here  Doss explains that a human rights violations can only be controlled if these armed groups are removed from villages, roads, markets and fields,

50 of the Virunga National Park rangers and their families are still safe in Goma and you can see photos here where Amir explains

“The area around Rumangabo is swamped with armed men, intent on pillaging the most vulnerable. A band came to the station yesterday and started breaking into the main building. The rangers fired in the air to scare them away. The bandits fired back in all directions. We heard later that they hit one of their own, killing him.

So it looks like things may begin to settle down. It’s an uneasy peace, but hopefully a situation that will allow us to go back to our business of protecting the park within a few days. We’ve made the decision to move the families out of the camp within a week. They will either go to an established refugee camp, where the big humanitarian agencies will provide them with food and healthcare, or hopefully, the situation will be sufficiently peaceful for us to be able to take them back to their homes at Rumangabo”.

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Tags: CNDP, gorillas, MONUC, Nkunda, North Kivu, Virunga National Park, wildlifedirect

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Category: Threats | Date: Oct 10 2008 | By: admin

The United Nations Mission in DR Congo has informed the French Press Agency AFP that rebel forces have withdrawn from the military base in Rumangabo which they took following fierce fighting with the army.

“At the request of MONUC, the armed elements of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) have withdrawn from the Rumangabo military camp,” the UN mission (MONUC) have said.

The dangerous situation at Rumangabo has forced about 50 rangers and their families to be evacuated to Goma where a temporary camp has beeen established using sticks and tarps. This is a set back for gorilla conservation and speaking to ITV news  Innocent is quoted as saying “Nowadays in our forest it is very difficult to work because there are different groups of army who are in the park. You can see the FDLR, the Congolese army, the CNDP, it is very difficult to work,”. In the same article Emmanuel confirms that negotiations will continue to regain access to the Gorilla sector which has been in control of CNDP rebels and out of bounds for ICCN rangers for more than a year.

According to AFP “The Congolese president made a nationwide television appeal on Thursday for a renewed campaign against Nkunda, who claims to be protecting members of his Tutsi ethnic group in the region” but the United Nations has “promised to do everything possible to stop Congo’s eastern conflict from becoming a wider war after the DR Congo government accused Rwanda of sending troops over the border, a U.N. official said on Friday” to Reuters.

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Tags: gorillas, ICCN, MONUC, rumangabo, Virunga National Park

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Category: Threats | Date: Oct 09 2008 | By: admin

We are alarmed with news reports that rebel forces have taken over the military base at Rumangabo. This has forced the ICCN to begin evacuating rangers from the Virunga National Park which is critical for their safety and survival, but will leave the gorillas and forests vulnerable.

According to AFP “The Democratic Republic of Congo’s envoy to the United Nations called on the Security Council to intervene to stop what he called an “imminent” Rwandan attack on the eastern DRC city of Goma.

Atoki Ileka told AFP that DRC authorities had “observed concentrations of Rwandan troops in the Rwandan border town of Gisenyi,” and that this suggested that an attack on Goma, located just across the frontier, was “imminent.”

Goma is the capital of Nord-Kivu province, which is at the center of renewed fighting between rebel and government forces that broke out August 28 in the east of the DRC.

“We have asked the Security Council to put the necessary pressure on Rwanda to prevent a new (Rwandan) aggression against DRC,” Ileka said, adding that troops in Rwandan uniforms had seized the Rumangabo military camp near Goma early Wednesday.”

Reuters have also just reported the invasion of Congo by Rwandan troops “Congo has accused neighboring Rwanda of sending troops across the border and fighting in support of a Congolese warlord. A Rwandan military spokesman denies the allegations.

North Kivu provincial Gov. Julien Mpaluku says Rwandan soldiers backing Congo warlord Laurent Nkunda crossed into Congo three days ago and headed for the frontier villages of Tshanzu and Bunagana. He said Wednesday that Rwandan troops were fighting in Rumangabo, a small village north of the regional capital, Goma”.

Rumangabo is the headquarters of the Virunga National Park where our former CEO Emmanuel de Merode and his team of rangers including Diddy and Innocent are based. In a post on the Official Virunga National Park website where Samantha reports that heavy fighting had broken out between the army and Nkunda’s rebels. The fighting approached the park station (Rumangabo is the Park headquarters). Military tanks were apparently “firing on the hills where they believe the rebels to be; an army helicopter is also hovering, patroling the area”.

It is now certain that the CNDP (Nkunda’s troops) have taken control of the Rumangabo military base - a major blow to the army and a major threat to the Rangers at the station.

A post on the blog at Gorilla.cd states

“Emmanuel is doing his utmost to try and secure the station and get the remaining people out. Monuc - the UN team in DRC - thankfully knows Pierre and the others are all there and have told them not to move from the station as it is unsafe”.

This is of course terrible news for conservation as it not only puts the ICCN staff in a severely dangerous situation(over 120 rangers have died in the line of duty over recent years), but will further curtail conservation activities, patrols or management of the park. In addition, it is likely to escalate the problem of internal refugees which will deepen the environmental impact of the tens of thousands that are being displaced as they seek safety.

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Tags: Diddy, ICCN, Innocent, Laurent Nkunda, MONUC, Mountain Gorillas, Rangers, rebels, wildlifedirect

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Category: Threats | Date: Oct 06 2008 | By: admin

In Innocents latest post on the official website of the Virunga National Park he reports in great detail how soldiers were caught ‘red handed’ making charcoal in the forest.

” We drove to Mwaro and hiked into the forest near a Congolese army position on the road. We very soon discovered vast areas of forest that had been cut down. Logs had been chopped and stacked in preparation to make charcoal. Soon after we found dozens of charcoal kilns at different stages- some had just been stacked, others were still burning, and some had sacks of charcoal next to them ready to transport to Goma for sale.

There were dozens of people working on the kilns, including women and children. We detained all the men and arrested two soldiers who were running the operation. We ordered the men to destroy the kilns they had just built and then marched them out of the forest.

The atmosphere was tense and we had to leave quickly. After explaining to them why we had to stop what they were doing, we decided to let most of the men go free. The two soldiers were placed in our vehicle and we drove them to our headquarters in Rumangabo. They are now under arrest and will be transferred to Goma to be handed over to the military tribunal.

Read more about it and check out the photos here

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Tags: charcoal, DR Congo, gorillas, wildlifedirect

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Category: Kabirizi Family | Date: Oct 05 2008 | By: rumangaboyouth

Looking for Miza was only just recently launched in New York at the first childrens Gorilla Summit

The book was developed to raise awareness amongst young people about the crisis facing mountain gorillas, and the need for everyone to help. Like it’s predecessor Owen and Mzee, “Looking for Miza” is already no. 1 in Amazons non fiction childrens books on monkeys and apes.  This book was made possible through a collaboration with the ICCN and involved working with  Diddy and Innocent, two rangers who are the heroes of the story. After spending time with them in Congo they both came to Kenya to help tie up ends. Both Diddy and Innocent were wonderful to work with and are recognized in the book along with others for their important contributions towards the story and photos. from is the editorial review on Amazon

“In a magical place called the Congo, in the beautiful forests and jungles of Virunga National Park, lives a young female mountain gorilla named Miza. She was just like any other baby gorilla, riding on her mother’s back, playing, taking naps. Then, one day, when Miza and her mother were out searching for food, Miza’s mother disappeared, leaving her baby alone and frightened. Miza’s father, a fierce silverback named Kabirizi and the leader of Virunga’s largest family of mountain gorillas, set out to find Miza. The Congolese rangers, who dedicate their lives to protecting the gorillas, were searching for Miza, too. Everyone was worried about her. Then something amazing happened: Kabirizi found Miza and brought her back to live with her family.

Virunga is home to roughly 380 mountain gorillas, just over half of the planet’s remaining mountain gorilla population. Miza and other mountain gorillas face an especially uncertain future. They are an endangered species, disappearing at an alarming speed. Without our help they could vanish completely.

Filled with lush photographs by award-winning photographer Peter Greste, LOOKING FOR MIZA is a powerful call to action. The fate of these majestic creatures is in our hands. This is Miza’s story. It’s our story, too. “

Children are signing the Kids Global Act  Pact and leaving suggestions for solutions to the crisis on the Scholastic website here

You can order the book on Amazon here 

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Tags: Congo, gorillas, Looking for Miza, Mountain Gorillas, Virunga National Park

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