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Protecting the Mountain Gorillas of Virunga
Congo Rebels Seize Park HQ at Rumangabo After Intense Fighting
Fighting at Rumangabo started at 0400 today between the rebels of Laurent Nkunda and the army. It has now totally engulfed the park station and our Rangers have been forced to flee into the forests for their lives. The rebels now are the only occupants of the park station at Rumangabo. This has never happened before.
This is a serious time. We need to get our 50+ Rangers back to safety in Goma, 45km south of Rumangabo. The main road is blocked because of the fighting so they are walking through the forests of the park south, to Kibumba, about 20km away, where we aim to pick them up in trucks. We are trying to maintain phone contact but they don’t have much battery life in their phones.
We also need to organize for them to stay in the camp in Goma - with their families. We need to get more food, fast.
If you would like to help toward supporting the Rangers in this crisis please donate in the sidebar to the right. You can make an open donation or you can donate using the Support For Ranger Evactuation from Virunga button. Thank you.
We will be issuing a press release shortly that will give you more information but for now I wanted you all to be aware of this.
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News from Congo- Suspected rebels rape over 240 women in DR Congo: NGO - AFP
- Congo Mass Rape Numbers Rise To 240: UN Report - Huffington Post (blog)
- Will United Nations Cover-Up Rwanda’s Congo Genocide? - Black Star News
- Soco Falls After Nganga Well Finds Water-Bearing Sands in Congo - Bloomberg
- Congo Gives Rights to Two First Quantum Mines to Hong Kong-Based Company - Bloomberg
- MagIndustries Update on Potash Investment Agreement with Republic of Congo - MarketWatch (press release)
- UN Delays Release of Report on Possible Congo Genocide - New York Times
- UK complicit in bankrolling Congo conflict - The Guardian
- British man piloted Congo death crash plane - The Guardian
- Congo rapes worse than reported - Salon
This website was funded by the European Union and the Prince Bernard Nature Fund.
37 Responses to “Congo Rebels Seize Park HQ at Rumangabo After Intense Fighting”
Emmanuel, what terrible news… I fervently hope that all the rangers will make it safely to Goma; my thoughts are with them and with you. I know you are very busy and I thank you so much for keeping us posted.May all of you be safe, Iris
The press release is now up and you can view it here:
http://gorillacd.org/files/2008/10/26-oct-press-release-rebels-seize-park-hq.pdf
We will keep you posted. Still no word on if the Rangers have reached Kibumba, but Emmanuel, Innocent & Diddy are all on standby with trucks to go and pick them up. The problem is that they have little battery life in their phones and then the signal is also not very strong. They are really walking in dense forest too which takes a long time.
I hope that all of the rangers, their families, staff and citizens in the surrounding ares are evacuated quickly and safely. I’m setting up Facebook now. May I post the press release there?
Hi Noseprints. Yes please post the press release there - we also have a Facebook cause. You can see it in the Virunga Everywhere box on the home page…
Thanks Samantha!
Which sad news. I hope that you will have been able to recover the guards and their family. I have just addressed to my French press correspondents a copy of your mail. I hope that those will carry information.
Thanks Jean-Claude. As an update everyone the Rangers never made it to Kibumba so that means they will be spending the night in the forest. Their cell phone batteries are dead and we have no way of knowing where they are.
Oh my God, this is horrible news…What the Hell? I thought the UN was going to intervene? Thank you for keeping us posted Samantha, and please send my thoughts and prayers to everyone…
This terrible news makes me sick! I just donated some money and my thoughts and prayers are with you all! Please stay strong and know that there are many people who support you and thank you for all that you are doing!!! Please keep us updated when you can find a moment to spare…
I’m horrified to learn this news. I’ve invited more people to the Facebook group, sent Emmanuel’s note around to everyone I know … I hope we get some press coverage of this atrocity. Please keep us posted on the welfare of the rangers who fled the station.
s.
On the front page of cnn.com: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/10/26/congo.gorillapark/index.html
s.
In today’s Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/26/AR2008102600581.html
s.
Thanks for keeping us posted on the situation there. My thoughts and prayers go out to you all for your safety and well being. I’m so sorry to hear this has happened.
Dear Samantha, I just heard about the takeover of your HQ on BBC World News (I am in Switzerland). I immediately came to your site for more information. I heard Emmanuel speak at the IUCN Congress a few weeks ago and his moving talk helped connect me to this place in the world. Now I am horrified to hear this news and I will send the press release through our network to those who heard Emmanuel speak and who do care about the team there. We will be thinking of you, and trust that the Rangers good skills will get them safely through the night and to their meeting point tomorrow.
Emmanuel, we are following the news from Guatemala. Hope everyone gets to Goma safely and that ICCN regains control of the station very soon.
Alejandra and Didier
Has the fighting affected the Rwanda side of the park?
Is it safe to track Gorillas from Rwanda?
Trip planned for January, 2009.
I just want to let you know that I’ve started following your blog, and linking to it from my painting and other blogs and asking people to donate. You, the rangers, the families, the gorillas are all in my thoughts and prayers.
We are planning to visit the Virunga National Park in Rwanda late February 2009 and will be tracking the gorillas with Peter Behr. I was absolutely astonished and horrified to learn of this news today. I have been following this story for quite some time now….there was a large article that was published in a recent issue of National Geographic. Please know that our thoughts and prayers are with you. I hope the UN, together with local governments are able to get this tragic situation under control very, very soon.
I am deeply sorry to hear all this is happening again. When all this violence is going to stop ? How much the Kivu’s people should die and suffer and why ? My prayers and thoughts are all toward you all. Thank you so much for telling the world what is going on and for your great project there.
After being away all day, I’m sad to come home to read about awful this news. Thanks for all the new links Sheryl. This is outrageous! I’ve posted all the links on my facebook page. My thoughts are with you all. Lisa
This is devastating news! I pray that all the rangers and their families make it out unharmed.
When will this end?
Samantha, I’m horrfied at your news. I hope and trust that the rangers will find their way to Goma. My thoughts are with all of you. Iris
Nkunda will PAY for all This-
Kind regards-
Thank you everyone for all your support. Innocent is about to post an update. Also - the donation transparency widget is not working properly and some donations are not showing. This will be fixed today as it is the number one priority. Thank you for your patience.
I feel so far away and helpless during this clearly worrying time. I think the british media (at least for one) should be ashamed of themselves for not reporting anything on this from either a conservation or humanitarian perspective..
I hope you people will be safe, and the gorillas too.. So you can continue your wonderful good work…
This should be classified among the greatest ecological disasters of the recent time, Gorillas are endangered species and such situation just speed up their extinction, we need to think the way forward.
Thank you for the good work you are doing Samantha, I am still a student in disaster management, I would like to volunteer with you as contribution, is that possible?
Masha from Nairobi
Dear Samantha,
Thank you for the updates. I read the latest horrifying news on Yahoo, about the rebels taking over headquarters in Virunga Park. The rangers and the mountain gorillas are in my prayers tonight. I never thought the news could get any worse. Peace to all.
This is tragic news and I agree that the British media has not brought this to the fore. I feel for the people on the ground, the international community must come together to stop this.
[...] a base but had never seized its headquarters before. The director of the park, Emmanuel de Merode, wrote about the events on Sunday at the official Virunga Park blog: Fighting [..] has now totally engulfed the park [...]
[...] money for the work rangers are doing in protecting natural resources in a very unstable war zone. Nkunda’s rebels have now seized the headquarters of the park - the team is now trying to find 50 rangers who’ve fled into the jungle, and are looking for [...]
[...] at work, eating lunch and watching television in the cafeteria. CNN International was covering the current crisis in Congo. The newscaster was simultaneously interviewing a woman from Human Rights Watch via satellite and [...]
[...] walikuwa hawajawahi kuitumia kama makao yao makuu. Mkurugenzi wa mbuga hiyo, Emmanuel de Merode, anaandika kuhusu matukio ya Jumapili katika blogu rasmi ya ya Mbuga za Virunga: Mapambano [..] yamezingira kabisa kituo cha [...]
[...] però mai arrivare ad occuparne anche gli edifici. Il direttore del parco, Emmanuel de Merode, ne ha parlato domenica nel blog del Parco gorillacd.org [in]: La battaglia [..] è scoppiata proprio intorno alle [...]
I’m very concerned about the Park and its inhabitants. Fortunately the web shows I’m not the only one… Here in Spain we have no information about what is happening there. Thank you to the brave rangers who are risking their lifes to protect the animals…we are all in debt with you. I hope you and your families are safe and can go back to work soon when everything is over.
Bonjour.
Je suis un réel défenseur pour la sauvegarde des gorilles de montagne. Je souhaiterai rentrer en contact avec monsieur de Mérode, directeur du parc.
Merci beaucoup d’avance.
Franck Duquenoy
1461 rue Martin du Gard
62100 Calais
France
06.68.44.21.42
Bonjour Franck,
Svp envoyez un email a emmanuel at gorilla.cd
Merci beaucoup