Congo Rangers

Category: Crises, Mountain Gorillas, Press, Rangers | Date: Jun 13 2007 | By: admin

I was sent the link below last week by friends of mine. This was done by a photographer, Georgina, who came to Congo a couple of months ago. We spent time with her up at Camp Karema with Augustin., right when we were just starting up there.  Augustin as you know is the head of the patrol post at Bukima, and has been leading the patrols today and yesterday to identify the individuals of the Kabirizi family. I am sure you have all been following the atrocious events on Paulin’s blog - of the killing of Rubiga and the orphan Ndakasi.

It has been a really hectic few days and I am reeling somewhat. I know Paulin will be updating his blog later on today, but I just wanted to say thank you for all the support I have received over recent days in relation to this brutal slaying. Thank you also for the donations.

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Category: Crises, Logistics | Date: May 26 2007 | By: admin

The Mai Mai rebel situation in the north of Virunga is still tenuous. This is the situation: Ishango, on the northern shores of Lake Edward, has been reinforced with more rangers to help Atamato. More rangers have also been deployed to Tshiaberimu, where the attack took place. NGOs, including The Gorilla Organisation, WWF and WildlifeDirect, are coordinating emergency action to help the wounded and finance the additional ranger deployment.

Norbert Mushenzi, the Director of the northern sector of Virunga for ICCN (the state entity that controls the parks) has been meeting with the Mai Mai, the Congolese army, and the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo to find a solution to this mess.

A good solution would be for the Mai Mai to integrate into the Congolese army. This needs to be done. As long as they continue to sit in Muramba illegally, just a stone’s throw from Ishango and the last remaining hippos in the lake, this will be a huge threat. Political pressure is key.

The Mai Mai have political support in Kinshasa too, among members of parliament. They must be pressured into ceasing the financing of armed activities in the parks of this country. The rebels are not seeking the destruction of the park out of necessity, but out of a desire for short term financial gain. This situation must be addressed urgently.
More to come soon

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Category: Crises | Date: May 20 2007 | By: admin

I have taken this post from Atamato’s blog:

At 4h00 this morning Mai Mai rebels attacked the Burusi Patrol Post here in Virunga, leaving one park ranger dead, four critically wounded, as well as kidnapping Officer Monya. There were 10 Park Rangers stationed at Burusi, including the Conservateur and the Conservateur Communicateur.

Rangers and Trackers in Tshiaberimu

The Burusi Patrol Post is the sub-station and also the entry point for the Tshiaberimu area in Virunga, where there are lowland gorillas.

It was reported on this blog that only 10 days ago the Mai Mai in Muramba, of the Jackson group, were rumoured to be around 50. But following meetings between the Mai Mai and the farmers of Mulango wa nyama, with plans to attack ICCN Patrol Posts in order to continue cultivating within the park, there numbers were able to quickly swell. This information was reported on several occasions to the Commander Brigade and MONUC, but to no effect.

ICCN have deployed two troops of the Advance Force of Congo Rangers to track the attackers, as well as contacting the military authorities of the eighth, based at Butembo. It is feared that the Mai Mai have plans to attack the lowland gorillas as they are now heading towards the Patrol Post of Kalibina, where the gorilla monitoring takes place.

We urgently need funds to support the Advance Force, as well as money for the hospital bills for the Park Rangers who are critically wounded. Please donate now, all money received will go directly to this cause.

UPDATE

Two troops have been deployed. Troop 1 to Tshiaberimu and Troop 2 to Ishango. Troop 3 have cut short their 10 day patrol at Byangolo and are now on standby at Mutsora. Some units from the Congolese military have also been deployed.

We have also just found out that there were a total of 13 people who have been taken hostage, and now they are with the Mai Mai somewhere in the forest.

The Burusi Patrol Post was completely ransacked by the Mai Mai; all stock, arms, as well as family possessions, have been taken.

Technorati : Con, Mai Mai, Wildlifedirect

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Category: Crises, Rangers | Date: May 03 2007 | By: admin

The Congolese military are going to set up a military training camp at Nyaleke, inside Virunga National Park. I was told today that after huge efforts by UNESCO, the European Union, the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICCN) and other conservation NGOs over many many months, all efforts have failed and we are soon going to see thousands of Congolese soldiers receiving training within the borders of one of the world’s most spectacular national parks.

This is not a regular military training camp. It is called a “camp de brassage” and is one of many such camps set up for the training, redeployment and demobilization of the Congolese military. While these camps are a crucial part of the peace process in Congo, placing them within the park is potentially very damaging.

Using Nyaleke as military camp - with the presence of potentially up to 4,000 former rebels being integrated into the regular army - not only poses a serious threat to the future of Virunga National Park but is also illegal according to the laws of DRC. The camp is clearly within the parameters of Virunga, about 11 km east of Beni.

This aerial photo shows the demarcation of the park, and the location of the camp inside the park.

The Dutch government financed the establishment of the military camp at Nyaleke. The camp was actually operational throughout 2006 but was due to be moved.

Virunga National Park was established as Africa’s first national park in 1925 and became a World Heritage Site in 1979. ICCN is committed to preserving the wildlife within the park after a 10-year civil war that saw most of the infrastructure destroyed and poaching soar. So it is simply not the right place to have a military camp. I am still making enquiries as to what has gone wrong with the attempts to prevent this and move the military camp to somewhere outside of the park. We are looking into a number of issues: why did the Dutch government fund a camp inside the park? What can we do to stop a disaster in the making?

Congolese soldier sitting on a dead elephant that was poached

Technorati : beni, congo, drc, eu, iccn, nyaleke, unesco, virunga, wildlifedirect

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Category: Crises, General | Date: Apr 28 2007 | By: admin

This article came out yesterday on the BBC website. Click on the picture below and you will get the whole story. The Congolese army said that it has killed 22 Rwandan Hutu rebels during an operation to secure a road near the Ugandan border. 100,000 villagers have been forced to flee as a result of the chaos.

As you can see the peace process is still tenuous here in the east of the country. I now need to establish the situation of the Rangers in this area to see if they need any emergency support. Will keep you all posted.

Technorati : congo, drc, fzs, hutu, rebel, rwanda, wildlifedirect

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Category: Crises, Rangers, Thoughts | Date: Apr 20 2007 | By: admin

On 18th April the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that a Ranger in Nyaruhangi, in Virunga
National Park, was shot dead by armed men assumed to be from the FARDC during the night of the 17th. Paul Bagambe Baibutsa was Chief of the Ruti Patrol Post. It seems that Bagambe was targeted as he was seen as an obstacle to animal poaching. I met him a couple of times but didn’t know him too well. Other rangers tell me that he was a brave man and spoke out against the Congolese army illegally poaching in the park. He was shot through the shoulder a couple of years ago but fortunately survived. This time, sadly, he wasn’t so lucky. I have promised to provide some support to his family to try and help them through the difficult times ahead. May his soul rest in peace. 

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Category: Crises, Logistics, Mountain Gorillas, Rangers | Date: Apr 05 2007 | By: admin

Yesterday we had to evacuate Camp Karema up at Bukima in the Mikeno Sector. We received information that the Rwandan military could have been on their way to Bukima - Rwanda does after all only lie some 6km away. There are often rumors of security threats in this area, and all have to be taken seriously.

So we packed up our belongings, cleared away as much as possible, hid the new generator in the bush (that is a heavy piece of equipment let me tell you), and set off back down to Goma which is about a 2 hour drive.

We are continuing to monitor the situation with ICCN and the park station at Rumangabo. I think that the threat has diminished and that will go back up to Camp Karema in a few days. Let’s hope so.

The hut is now built and we are doing the finishing touches. Patrick and I are ecstatic!

The Vsat has been installed and we are just waiting for the connection.

For the Vsat to connect to the satellite the generator needs to be on all day, and of course yesterday that had to be aborted.

It sounds crazy I am guessing to outsiders when I talk about the security threats in this area - Mai Mai, Interhamwe (Rwandan Hutus), Nkunda’s men, Rwandan military - but it is after all still an unstable area. We just have to keep going. Virunga National Park is important not just to Congo, but to the whole world. I care about the park and the wildlife in it. That is why I am here.

Technorati : bukima, fzs, iccn, karema, mountain gorilla, wildlifedirect

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Category: Crises, Elephants, General, Hippos | Date: Feb 11 2007 | By: admin

Today a group of 43 elite Congo Rangers have gone to Ishango, on the northern shores of Lake Edward. This is about 15-20km east from Muramba, and home to hippos, elephants and buffalo. The Rangers are going to protect the area from a potential Mai Mai attack.

At present the situation is still unclear and we are trying to obtain additional details regarding the Mai Mai’s intentions. But based on precedent and last year’s hippo massacre we fear the worst. The elite Rangers will be doing their utmost to protect the wildlife of Virunga… More to come later but I just wanted to let you all know this.  

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Category: Crises, General, Hippos, Rangers | Date: Feb 09 2007 | By: admin

We have just learned that the rebel Mai Mai group have set up camp in Muramba. This lies in the north west corner of Lake Edward, very close to the last remaining hippos in this area. We fear that these rebels are planning to slaughter more hippos, after the November/December massacre at the south of the lake that saw thousands of hippos dead.

We are still trying to obtain more information as to how many Mai Mai are in Muramba, and what can be done about it. The Mai Mai only want to kill the hippos for money - the meat fetches about $300 per hippo and then they also sell their long canine teeth which contain ivory. They kill the hippos with AK 47s… the animals simply do not stand a chance.

Two decades ago there were 22,875 hippos in Virunga National Park… Today we are lucky if there are 300. This brazen and systematic slaughter of hippos should not be happening. It is an outrage.

Remnants of the Hippo Slaughter in November last year

Scenes of the Hippo Slaughter last November

On another note, following the Mai Mai attack on the Lulimbi patrol post last week (virtually on the opposite side of the lake to Mutwanga), the two rangers who were taken hostage were released and rangers have started to return to the post.

Will keep you all posted…

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Category: Crises | Date: Jan 27 2007 | By: admin

I have just heard that two rangers have been taken hostage by the Mai Mai, and that one of the rangers wives who was 8 months pregnant has just given birth to her child due to the stress… they are all still hiding somewhere in the bush.

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