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Yesterday, throughout the day, fighting continued in and around our patrol posts of Bikenge and Jomba.  UN combat helicopters fired missiles into the presumed rebel positions on the hills of Cianzu and Runioni, right on the edge of the park.  Early this morning, the Congolese army began a sustained assault of the area using  heavy machine guns and what sounded like 120 mm mortars.  These are 30 pound shells, that can cause very significant damage.

We have had reports that our ranger post at Bikenge has been severely dammaged.  We’ve been pulling our staff out of the gorilla sector positions.  Bukima was evacuated last night, just as we received information of rebel infiltration into the area.  There are, as always, all sorts of rumours on what the rebels are going to do next.

The map tries to retrace the events of the past month.  There was heavy fighting in Masisi in the west two weeks ago, at Kilolirwe and Kitchanga on the edge of the park (1).  The battle was effectively won by the Congolese army who forced the rebels into the park and across towards the Rwandan border.  They were intercepted by Congolese army positions at Kibumba (2) and it is believed that the rebel forces were split into two after fierce fighting that also caused massive population displacement as the people of Kibumba fled to Goma.  After the fighting, one column moved east up into the mountain gorilla sector then on to Runyoni and Bikenge in the east of the gorilla sector (3).  The second column is more mysterious.  Some believe it may have gone north to try to get to the Ituri via Uganda.  If that’s the case, then there is a possibility that this second column might have been responsible for the attack on our patrol last week, in which three of our men were killed (4).

The CNDP rebel movement appears to be somewhat split.  A new movement called M23, under Col Makenga are in the gorilla sector. Makenga was based there during the 2007/8 war, and knows the terrain very well. Bosco’s forces are difficult to pin down, but may also be with Makenga, although the two are not exactly on friendly terms.  Nobody seems very clear on where Bosco is at the moment.  He is wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for war crimes, and his fate will certainly determine the outcome of the conflict.

At this stage, we are securing our staff, and trying to keep the work going as best we can .  Most of the park is unaffected by the fighting, and work is continuing as usual.  We’re very worried about the mountain gorillas and for the populations living around Bukima and Bikenge.

UN Soldiers set up a base at Rumangabo outside the park headquarters.

Map of the Mikeno Gorilla Sector.

Many of you have expressed your support and sent us gifts to help Paris’s widow and children after the terrible events this week.  We are incredibly grateful.  I have often written in the past of the difficulties that the families experience after the death of ranger, and it is only because of the support that we receive that we can alleviate some of that suffering.

I wanted to write a few words on how we use your gift.  It’s a very stressful and difficult period for the family, so immediately after the death, we take charge of all the funeral arrangements, which costs about 400 dollars.  This includes food for the families and friends of the deceased ranger, who often come from far away.  After the funeral we give the widow 300 dollars to help her cope with the immediate challenges.  We then work out what is known as a “decompte final” which is a lumpsum payment that is typically about 1,500 to 2,000 dollars and is intended to help a widow tackle the difficulties of rebuilding her new life.  To make sure that everything works, we re-establish her husband’s bank account in her name, which is why it takes a few weeks to sort all of this out.  It’s very important, because it’s the only way for us to be sure that she gets the money.  Thereafter, we transfer 30 dollars a month to the widows so that they can cover some of the basic needs, such as food health and their children’s education.  The monthly payment is not a lot, but it makes a huge difference.

We laid Paris to rest in a quiet place by the park station at Rwindi.  Hundreds of people came, including a priest and a preacher.  We were able to say a few words in memory of an incredibly courageous life.

This is a brief note to explain recent events in the Gorilla Sector.  The CNDP militias attacked the Government positions on the edge of the gorillas sector late last night.  The violence was protracted and intense and the militias managed to take two hills, Cyanzu and Runioni, both between our patrol posts of Bikenge and Jomba.  We withdrew our rangers from the two patrol posts, which are currently abandoned.  We are keeping an eye on the area from the air and thanks to the contact that we have with members of the local community.  Two gorilla groups are in that area, Rugendo, and Lulengo.  It is of deep concern, and we have to hope that the gorillas will stay away from the fighting.  Likewise, populations have been streaming from that area to safety down in valleys.

Today, there was further fighting, and we received preliminary reports that the Government forces may have regained control of the two hills.  Meanwhile the main CNDP rebel forces are approaching the town of Bunagana.

With great sadness, I’m sharing with you the news of the death of one of our rangers, Paris Paluku, and two Congolese soldiers, Sebutu and Mandapa, who were working with us to protect civilians passing through the park on the Mabenga to Kabasha road.

All three were killed instantly by sustained machine gun fire at short range when their 15-man patrol fell into an ambush as they were securing the area where two public transport vehicles had been attacked and looted on Tuesday night.  The enemy, numbering around 100, were possibly the largest number of militias we have ever been confronted with in a single attack.   We are still unsure exactly who they were, as there are currently four distinct militia groups in the park.

We organised the funerals this afternoon, with his family and friends, and the whole community in Rwindi. Paris will be remembered as one of the most courageous men to have worked in the park.  He was always at the head of any patrol, which put him at risk and ultimately cost him his life.  He played a key role as an assistant instructor in the training of all our rangers.  He leaves a wife and two children.  Any donations to the widows and orphans over the next few weeks will go towards supporting the family he has left behind.

In the early hours of yesterday morning, a rebel army of reportedly around 1,500 men under the command of Bosco Ntaganda crossed the Park from the west and entered the Gorilla Sector.  Bosco Ntaganda was indicted by the International Criminal Court for War Crimes, and took up arms last month following widespread rumours that the Congolese Government were about to arrest him.

Bosco has a long history in the region.  He was Laurent Nkunda’s second in command during the 2007-8 rebellion.  In early 2009, he betrayed Nkunda, and in the process broke the back of the rebellion.  Since then, he has served as a general in the Congolese army, but remains hugely controversial because of his alleged crimes in North Kivu and in the Ituri region.

Just before entering the Gorilla Sector, they crossed a detachment of Congolese military which provoked a violent confrontation.  This panicked the population in the village of Kibumba, and has provoked a large scale population displacement towards Goma.  This is sadly reminiscent of the situation we suffered four years ago, and we may see the re establishment of internally displaced people’s camps (refugee camps) on a very large scale.

On our side, we’re preparing ourselves.  The gorillas are not immediately at risk, but we have several units in the forest that are in danger.  There is a patrol of 12 of our rangers in the forest just east of the area where the rebels are believed to be.  This patrol has been cut off between the Rwandan border and the rebels, so they’re stuck for now.  They have 48 hours of rations left, so we are worried.  Also our rangers at the patrol posts of Bukima, Bikenge and Jomba are at risk, so we’re taking measures to keep them safe.

Needless to say, we made the decision to close the park to tourism until the situation is safe again.  Apart from that, our park staff are continuing their work much as before.  Hopefully, things will work out in the coming days.

For more photos from a Dutch News Site, click HERE

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Baby gorilla Ihirwe has been well taken care of in Rwanda by MGVP Vets and caretakers.

Many of you will remember the incident last August where Rwandan police intercepted poachers crossing the border from Congo with a baby gorilla, later named Ihirwe by the gorilla doctors at MGVP. Based on interrogation of the poachers, it was believed the baby was a mountain gorilla from Virunga, but without DNA testing, it could not be proven. If Ihirwe was a mountain gorilla, she would have been brought to Virunga’s Senkwekwe Orphan Gorilla Center, the only sanctuary for critically endangered mountain gorillas in the world.

Baby gorilla Ihirwe on the day she was rescued from poachers in August 2011.

The DNA test results confirmed this week that she is NOT a mountain gorilla as originally believed, but an eastern lowland Grauer’s gorilla. Although we looked forward to receiving her at Senkwekwe Center, we are very happy to know that none of the mountain gorillas died or were poached in this incident.

Ihirwe will be transferred to the GRACE sanctuary west of Butembo in Congo to join a large family of other Grauer’s orphan gorillas. We wish her a long happy life.

Rodrigue, the central sector warden, reported a violent confrontation with elephant poachers early this morning near Mabenga.  We have lost three elephants in this area since the beginning of the year, and because of that launched a major operation in the area 16 days ago.  A large number of our men have been patrolling the area, carrying out surveillance, and laying ambushes.

Volunteers…prevent the slaughter of elephants — and you don’t have to be in Virunga to help!
 
 
CLICK HERE to go to the Elephant Crisis Page and see how you can help.

I’m writing to ask for your help.  Last week we suffered the loss of one or our elephants in the Mabenga area.  This is extremely worrying because it could indicate the beginning of a major poaching crisis in that area.  We have to act fast and vigorously to stop this crisis before it even begins and we really need your support for this.

This was a short film we took of one of our Mabenga elephants last year.  The event reminds us how friendly and trusting they are, but also how incredibly vulnerable they are to poachers, and nothing short of 24 hour armed protection will keep them alive.

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There are about 80 elephants in the Mabenga area; it’s one of the park’s most important populations to have survived the war.  We have received information that the people involved in the killing of the elephant are still in the area and we must deal with this problem. We will be putting together a team of ten rangers to specifically protect this area.  We also need to build proper surveillance, elephant monitoring, intelligence gathering etc.  For that reason, we want to set up an elephant protection unit as a long term solution to the poaching problem.  Their job will be to provide 24 / 7 protection to the Mabenga elephants to avoid their possible extinction.

We need your help to set up this protection unit. The park has very limited resources, but we have to respond to killing incidences like the loss of our elephants last week.  I would be very grateful for your thoughts on this and in particular if there is anyone who would be willing to volunteer their time to make this elephant anti-poaching unit a reality.  I passionately believe that anybody anywhere in the world can make a profound difference to the future of the park.  The kind of support that we need is for people to campaign on the behalf of the park, getting feedback from the rangers on the ground and raising support by communicating this to a community of supporters around the world.  It would involve a few hours of voluntary work a week, and you will be working from your home but in close collaboration with my field team that will support your efforts with web support, information and ideas on mobilizing communities.

I hate to show this picture, but it’s important to realise just how awful elephant poaching is.

If there is anybody who feels they could help us with this campaign please do send us a message on elephantcrisis@gorilla.cd, with some information about yourself.  Please don’t hesitate if you have ideas on helping the elephants of Virunga.

On a routine flight over the park on Tuesday, we did a short aerial reconnaissance of the Ishasha Valley, that marks the border with Uganda.  As we flew over, one of my passengers saw a lion by the river.  Lions have sadly become quite rare and I circled to get a good view.  We quickly saw what the lion was after.  The large bloated carcass of an adult elephant lay in the bushes by the river.  It was clearly an ivory poaching incident: the tusks had been hacked out of the elephant’s face.

We took some photos and headed back for headquarters.  As we flew back,  I worked on the next steps, instructing the standby section of rangers to prepare for an immediate operation, and briefing Rodrigue, the sector warden in Rwindi, the central sector of the park.  I decided to call Marlene in Switzerland.  As I described the incident, she decided that the canine unit could handle such an operation.  This was a big step, their first anti-poaching operation, after a year of training.  We decided to use Shamavu and Dodi, together with Gratien and Lily as backup.  They’re a strong team, but it was an incredibly challenging crime scene – the killing had been done four, maybe five days before, and would have been heavily contaminated by scavengers.  Still, we have to do everything we can.

The canine unit drove through the night, and early yesterday morning I flew the hounds in.  The team quickly found the carcass, and the canine unit got to work.  It was a horrific, brutal scene.  The investigation was harder than we expected.  The poachers had left nothing, just a few broken branches.  We decided to use carcass itself as a scent item that the hounds could use to track the poachers, but the tracks were blended in with the passage of every hyena and every lion in the neighbourhood.  On top of that, Dodi and Lily took one look at the carcass and bolted.  It’s not surprising as the carcass looked terrifying and had a horrific stench.  Shamavu spent a good half hour talking to Dodi and reassuring her.  He was able to convince her, and she came in.  He used a bone as the scent item, and after twenty minutes searching for a trail, they took off.

They crossed the river and headed west at considerable speed, with a defence unit of six rangers on their heels.  The trail headed straight towards the fishing village at Nyakakoma.  Dodi kept focussed despite the large herds of cob, topi and other animals. We kept on the trail for about seven kilometres, until it was clear that the trail was going to Nyakakoma.  There wasn’t much more useful information to be gained at that stage, and Dodi was getting quite tired, so I instructed Shamavu to cease the trail and we flew the dogs back to headquarters.

Last night, Rodrigue moved in with his unit.  They patrolled the area through the night, and in the very early hours of the morning saw torches in the savanna.  They intercepted the suspects, who immediately opened fire.  After a short exchange of fire, the suspects fled, leaving four rifles on the scene.  The suspects were poaching, and may well have been the elephant poachers.  Rodrigue is continuing the investigation.

I received a very disturbing call this morning from Rodrigue, the Sector warden for the Rwindi area.  An elephant was killed during the night by poachers on the main road to Goma. He immediately went in with a section of rangers and launched an investigation. The elephant was shot eight time, and its head removed.  The poachers left with the Ivory.  It’s too early to give any information on the scene of the crime but unfortunately, for various reasons, we can’t even use the hounds to pursue the poachers.  It’s deeply disturbing and very worrying for the future of our small elephant populations.  We’ve taken measures to secure the area and will be stepping up a number of measures in that area and elsewhere.