Congo Rangers

Category: Active Service | Date: Sep 25 2006 | By: admin

Unfortunately, the Advance force has to be pulled out of the Lake Edward area, despite a feeling of unfinished work.  The slaughter of hippos continues.  There’s a crisis developing in the northern forests of the park with the arrival of a large group of NALU rebels (more rebels…).  The NALU is the term used in Congo for Ugandan rebels perhaps better known as the ADF.  They are as brutal with unarmed civilians as they are cowardly when faced by armed law enforcement personel (the Ugandans have largely thrown them out of Uganda, so they have decided to take refuge in the Virunga National Park).  While the rebels may be good at attacking and brutalising unarmed civilians, they are less good at confronting well trained law enforcement personnel, such as the Advance Force.

There have been reports of increased NALU activity in the Mavivi area, not far from the town of Beni, where they have managed to abduct five soldiers from the Congolese armed forces.  We heard yesterday that they have now executed two of them.  Although the Advance Force does not operate on behalf of the military, this has all happened within the park where the Advance Force have a legal obligation to intervene.  It is also quite an emotive subject subject for us because the NALUs abducted two ICCN rangers in early 2005, and they were never seen again.  It was rumoured that they were being kept alive in holes in the ground at one of the NALU camps which has since been destroyed by MONUC and military intervention.  If the ICCN manage to capture any of the rebels, they shoudl quickly be able to establish whether their colleagues are still alive and get news back to their families.  The operation whihc started on 17th of September is expected to last for two weeks.  I’ve not had news of any contact yet between the Advance Force and the NALU, but it’ll be an important test for the rangers and will hopefully demonstrate that they can help secure the lives of the civilian populations around the Park, as well as protect the wildlife.  We shall see…