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Protecting the Mountain Gorillas of Virunga
The Gorilla Massacre, July 2007 - A Day of Shock and Mourning
I have been thinking about these images, because we have all found them so upsetting, but as in the past, it is better that people see what is really happening. I will try to recount the events as best I can and I am sorry that the images are so disturbing.
I was in Goma on the night of 22 July. Emmanuel de Merode was in Bukima with members of my team, and Scott and Brent of Newsweek. They heard shots at around 8pm. The next day, a patrol went in from the Bikenge patrol post and quickly found the bodies of three females. It was crushing to hear the news. It is the worst thing that can happen, when a whole group is attacked, and when so many are killed. The females were Neza, Safari and Mburanumwe. Safari became famous in the newspapers when she had her baby, Ndeze, back in February. Mburanumwe was a young subadult female, who was pregnant. It is a massive blow to our efforts to protect the gorillas.
It was pouring down with rain when the Bukima team arrived. Mburanumwe had, for some reason that we couldn’t understand, been badly burned. I think it must have been done to offend us, but I don’t know. It’s difficult to get into the minds of people who can do a crime as terrible as this. It was still late and pouring with rain so the search was called off and the team returned to Bukima.
The following day, people poured in from the surrounding villages. It was moving to see that our sorrow was shared by so many. They had come to help.
The team split into two groups, with one team of Rangers going into the forest with trackers to try to find the remaining gorillas, and the other to carry the dead gorillas back to Bukima and then on to Rumangabo for burial. They searched for other bodies, and within half an hour found the lifeless body of Senkwekwe, the Silverback of the group. This was a moment of great pain for all of us.
Senkwekwe, the Silverback, is brought out of the forest to be transported to Bukima. Emmanuel is next to Senkwekwe. We were all in shock.
Our 4 gorillas were tied to stretchers, and then the long march began. A large number of people had to carry Senkwekwe, because of his enormous size. It was a long long walk that lasted for over three hours.
Eventually the procession arrived in Bukima, and the Senkwekwe and his group were take by vehicle to be laid to rest at the graveyard in Rumangabo.
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17 Responses to “The Gorilla Massacre, July 2007 - A Day of Shock and Mourning”
My heart breaks when I see this. I have been to Bwindi to see the Gorillas and have contributed to their plight. I will support the Bukima team and pray this never happens again.
Nothing brings tears more quickly to my heart and eyes than cruelty to children and animals. The horror of this meaningless slaughter to these beautiful gorillas is a true heartache.
I have always loved gorillas and it breaks my heart that I am not financially able to help. I will link your site to my web site as that is all I can do. I there is anything else I can do, other than spreading your cause and the plight of the gorillas by word-of-mouth, then please email me back and tell me how I can help.
God bless you for your work!
[...] Emmanuel is currently at Rumangabo with Pierre, Eddy and Brent Stirton, the photographer who took the pictures of the July 2007 massacre. [...]
How bad is the people in this world ,that they should go out and hunt and kill these beautiful gorillas,maybe they should stop and take a close look at them,they love ,they feel pain and sorrow, they feel love and have familys,all i can say is if it happened to their family ,how would they feel,live and let live,we are all here for a reason ,love and care for these creatures ,they are just like us ,pray that they survive,capital punishment to those that harm them
[...] We have some excellent news. We have finally seen the Rugendo Family, our most habituated group of gorillas in Congo, but also the most traumatized after the July 2007 massacre. [...]
[...] was an Adult Female in the Rugendo Family - and one of the 5 victims of the massacre in July [...]
[...] was one of the victims of the Rugendo Family massacre in July 2007. At the time of the massacre we did not find her body, but we found her remains 4 [...]
[...] The Trust launched an appeal over a year ago for Virunga’s mountain gorillas following the July 2007 massacre - and surprised us at the beginning of January with this generous [...]
[...] have just completed the profiles of the mountain gorillas we lost back in July 2007, with Diddy and Samantha. I also wrote the profile for Nsekuye, the adult female [...]
I’m crying at my desk reading this. It is absolutely awful and I’m afraid something that I will never understand- the killing of animals like this and the burning of them. I really hope that the people who have done this are brought to justice.
[...] is a juvenile (5 yr old) Grauer’s gorilla. The mountain gorillas were rescued in 2007 after their mothers were both shot in the Mikeno Sector of Virunga Park. The Grauer’s was confiscated from poachers in January 2008 [...]
this is so sad. ):
this is sooooooooooo sad every time i look at these pic i just want to find the people responsible for this and bashing them with a big stick
how could anyone be so cruel.
[...] The events of that day were described in detail on our blog at the time (click here to read) [...]
[...] was the gorilla massacre that nearly destroyed our park two years [...]
[...] was working in Mutsora, the northern station of Virunga National Park. I remember hearing about the massacre of the Rugendo family of gorillas from Emmanuel. But it wasn’t until I opened an e-mail from [...]