Congo Rangers

Category: Active Service, Crises, Mountain Gorillas | Date: Dec 16 2006 | By: admin

I was in Rumangabo this morning (HQ of the gorilla sector) where Elie, Ben, the team from Ricochet, and two sections of the Advance Force were about to help escort a group of rangers and their families back to their Patrol Post at Bukima. 

 

Bukima was the only patrol post that had not been occupied by either the military or rebel troops during the fighting ten days ago.  However, less than an hour before we were due to set off, a group of UN Peacekeepers came tearing up the drive in their jeep reporting mass evacuation from a nearby village. 

Aloma Zephor was immediately instructed by Elie to get into civilian clothes and take a motorbike to Bukima to see whether it had been occupied.  He returned an hour later to confirm that Nkunda’s troops had based themselves there, the local communities had fled the area, and he had just passed a vehicle from the 2nd Integrated Brigade from Beni loaded with heavy weapons heading in the direction of the patrol post. 

Clearly this was not something for the Advance Force to get involved in, but there are huge concerns amongst the rangers for the safety and welfare of the gorilla groups near Bukima patrol post - especially the Kabirizi group of 33 individuals with a newborn just a couple of weeks old. 

Unfortunately the risk to the gorillas isn’t just from stray bullets, but also from rockets and grenades… the Congolese army clearly mean business, but unfortunately they are up against a well trained and well equipped rebel group and it’s not going to be easy.  Only time will tell if the gorillas make it through unscathed.

 

 

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Category: Active Service, Crises, Hippos | Date: Dec 16 2006 | By: admin

I have just heard that the Mai Mai have started to move out of Cyondo following the deployment of the Advance Force into Vitshumbi on Friday and subsequent arrest of one of the Mai Mai poachers.  Information is still a little thin and I will need to follow it up over the next couple of days to get a clearer picture of what exactly is going on.  However I have managed to get a call through to a military intelligence officer based at Vitshumbi who confirmed that over the last 24 hours, the Mai Mai have moved most of their soldiers out of Cyondo and are heading for the military integration camp at Rumangabo.  When I asked the intelligence officer what sparked this off, he said that it was because the ICCN were starting to get serious and the Mai Mai didn’t want to hang around any longer. 

This is a huge success for the Advance Force and goes to really highlight the importance of a well trained law enforcement unit to deter illegal poaching actvities.  The Advance Force will continue to build on this success and increase its presence on the ground at Vitshumbi, until such time as all the Mai Mai have evacuated the area and the Advance Force can go in and dismantle whatever is left of their camp.

 

 

3 responses so far

Category: Crises, Mountain Gorillas | Date: Dec 15 2006 | By: admin

Last week fighting broke out between the Congolese military and the dissident General Laurent Nkunda in the gorilla sector of the Virunga National Park. Park rangers and their families were forced to flee the Congo for Uganda where they sought saftey for nearly a week along with over 6,000 refugees who had also fled the fighting.  As soon as it was safe enough, the chief warden collected them in his truck and brought them all to the relative safety of his station at Rumangabo.  However they had lost everything.  They had nowhere to stay and nothing to eat, and were unable to return to their patrol posts becasue most of them were occupied by military personnel. 

We immediately launched an emergency appeal to raise funds for food, clothes and medical supplies to help support the rangers and their families.  The response was staggering.  Within 24 hours we had received funds from the International Primate Protection League, the Africa Conservation Fund, The Born Free Foundation, UNESCO, FZS and one private donor, enabling us to provide immediate support to almost 80 rangers women and children who had been left homeless as a result of the fighting.

Part of the Advance Force mandate is to remain flexible and to prioritize their responses to emerging crises.  As such, the operation in the far north of the park which was going to be filmed for the Discovery Channel has been postponed.  Elie is currently leading a troop down to Rumangabo to provide security to the rangers and their families wishing to return to Bukima, the only patrol post not currently occupied by the military. 

Ricochet, who wanted to film the tough reality of life as a ranger in Virunga National Park, will accompany Elie and his men on this important mission and will see for themselves the extreme hardships of life on the front line for the rangers and their families.  The Advance Force will also need to check on the mountain gorillas to make sure that that none of them have been injured or worse still killed in the crossfire.  It wasn’t the story that Ricochet had originally planned for, but this is real life in real time, and the show must go on! 

 

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Category: Thoughts | Date: Dec 15 2006 | By: admin

Not something you might expect to see in a National Park back home.  But this is Congo.  This is different.   

Skull, ammo box and jaw staked out on the side of the main road

A brutal reminder to the Interehamwe marks the spot where one of their rebel soldiers was shot just over a month ago.  Psychological warfare of this nature seems to play a key role in a country still haunted by black magic and fetishism.

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Category: Active Service, Crises, Hippos | Date: Dec 15 2006 | By: admin

I have just come back from a patrol with the Advance Force which was deployed for the first time today at Vitshumbi. Within 3-4 hours of getting on the ground, they had arrested their first hippo poacher who they found hacking meat from a carcass and loading it onto a small fishing boat.  He has been transported back to the station and is currently undergoing questioning.  The Congolese Wildlife Authority has now decided to send down a second troop to support the intervention, and they should arrive within the next 48 hours.

Before deploying, we met briefly with the commander of the marines and the infantry based at Vitshumbi.  Neither seemed in a hurry to help the ranges, and the marine told of how he had called his commanding officer when he first saw the Mai Mai approaching, guns blazing, in four motorised speedboats.  The marine was told in no uncertain terms that as long as the Mai Mai did not start shooting at the local population, they were not to get involved.  The massacre continued relentlessly for three days and three nights, right in front of the fishing village, until they had shot every hippo in sight.   

After the meeting, the rangers wasted no time getting out on patrol and found illegal fishing boats hidden in the grass, and wooden wheel barrows used to transport hippo meat.  Bones lay everywhere and hippo skin had been rolled up like thick doormats and thrown under the bushes.  The stench was unbearable. As well as the poacher, they found and arrested several illegal fishermen, and when questioned they said that they were fishing for the marine commander we had spoken to earlier.  This is not going to be easy, but the Advance Force is determined and their efforts represent the park’s last real hope of saving Virunga’s hippos. 

 

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Category: Logistics | Date: Dec 04 2006 | By: admin

The Advance Force has just benefited from a donation of over 1,000USD from Ranger Relief in California.

Along with rations and salaries, Ranger Relief has chosen to provide the congo rangers with much needed uniforms, boots and patrol tents which will be purchesed from Manchester Outfitters in Nairobi and flown out to DRC on the first available flight.

Many thanks Vanessa from Happy Hollow Zoo in California, and all those at Ranger Releif who helped raise the funds!

2 responses so far

Category: Crises, Hippos | Date: Dec 04 2006 | By: admin

Hippo carcass on the edge of Lake Edward

I have just flown over Vitshumbi where less than two months ago we had counted over 200 hippos. Today we saw just 13. This follows a massive slaughter over the past week by a group of Mai Mai some 20km East of Vitshumbi on the southern shores of Lake Edward.

I was flying Ben Anderson and his film crew up to Mutsora to do a documentary on the Advance Force to be aired next spring. He saw first hand the threats the rangers were facing, and flew over hippos being hacked into pieces and loaded on small canoes destined for the illegal fishing villages along the west coast.

Only two days ago, this same group of Mai Mai attacked Lulimbi, a ranger station in the East of the park. Fortunately no one was killed, but they left a ranger badly injured and made off with 10 rifles and 4 walkie-talkies.

How long will the UN let it go on? Without their immediate support it may all be over for Virunga’s hippos before Ben has finnished filming for his documentary.

It’s not often you see a presenter left speechless

5 responses so far

Category: Crises, Hippos | Date: Dec 02 2006 | By: admin

The situation has gone from bad to worse in the Virunga National Park, and despite significant risks, the ICCN are now sending their rangers to Vitshumbi to protect one of the last main hippo groups. One troop from the Advance Force will be deployed in support of this operation within the next 24 hours.

One of many half-butchered hippos floating along the edge of Lake Edward

The sudden increase in poaching comes as a direct result of UN and military troops leaving the park in support of operations against the dissident General Laurent Nkunda. The vacuum has been filled by a lunatic group of Mai Mai rebel soldiers currently living in the park. Many of these soldiers have now moved out of the bush and into Vitshumbi, a fishing village on the edge of Lake Edward, where they are systematically destroying what remains of the hippo population.

Again the UN Peacekeeping Force for the DRC seems reluctant to get involved at this time - the trouble is, for the hippos at least, time is running out.

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Category: Active Service | Date: Dec 02 2006 | By: admin

Ricochet production have just arrived in Goma and will be filiming the Advance Force over the next few weeks for a series entitled ‘The World’s Toughest Tribes’ that will go out on the Discovery Channel early next year.

On the trail of armed poachers

Ben Anderson, who will be presenting the documentary, will be trained for one week by the Advance Force in drill, patrolling, weapons handling, tracking, arrest and interrogation, navigation, and first aid. Assuming he passes the training programme, he will receive his green berret and the opportunity to join the Advance Force on a brief 3 day reconnaissance mission to the far north of the park, an area that fell into the hands of Ugandan Rebels more than 30 years ago.

Within the next six to eight months, the Advance Force hope to bring this area back under full control of the Congolese wildlife authority, starting with Ben’s mission in a couple of week’s time.

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