We’ve been reading for the past couple of days on Wildlife Direct’s Gorilla Protection blog that the Congo army, FARDC, is attacking rebel general Laurent Nkunda. This is a long-planned push to capture Nkunda (seen here looking like the tool he is), and the FARDC is using helicopter gunships, heavy artillery, and ground troops. BBC News reports that the FARDC has captured Nkunda’s headquarters at Mushake.
In the middle of all this insanity are people, of course, and the very endangered mountain gorillas. You may recall from previous postings that back in July, five members of the Rugendo family (including a pregnant female and an infant) were murdered. There are two suspects in custody, so far. Fighting in the gorilla sector of DR Congo’s Virunga National Park has been ongoing for three months. Only once have rangers been allowed by rebel troops to visit the gorilla sector, and two families were seen doing well.
But their security is threatened by all the shelling and bombing going on right now in their living rooms, as reported by The Guardian (UK). Do you want to help them? Great! You can donate to the Gorilla Protection fund at the link above using Paypal. It’s easy. You can also write to your Congressional members or contact the State Department to comment on Secretary Rice’s current visit to Ethiopia to discuss fighting in several African nations, including DR Congo. You’ll find links to Congress and the SecState in the “Wildlife Direct” tab at the right corner of my blog entry.
Please do what you can.
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Filed under: Mountain gorillas, Virunga National Park Rangers, endangered species, primates
