Congo Rangers

Category: Crises, Hippos | Date: Jan 21 2007 | By: admin

Approximately 25 hippos and 3 elephants have been killed at Vitshumbi in the last few days. This is an area where we had estimated around 30 hippos to exist following our last aerial census of the park. The prognosis does not look good and by now it may well be too late to save the last few individuals.The problem is that the Mai Mai (many of whom have already gone through the demobilization processed but failed to reintegrate properly and have chosen once again to take up arms), have now teamed up with certain elements of the FDLR (Rwandan rebels better known as Interehamwe) and are illegally occupying this critical area of the park.

ICCN rangers are being prevented to carry out their legal mandate to patrol in the area and protect the wildlife due to the presence of these armed groups, and in the absence of respect for a recognized government authority, the result is near anarchy. We desperately need the UN Peacekeepers to help bring the situation back under proper control.