Rebels Seize Virunga National Park HQ

On Sunday, 26 October, Congolese rebels seized the headquarters of Virunga National Park which is home to 200 endangered mountain gorillas. Fifty rangers fled into the forest as the HQ was seized and are now trapped without food or water.

A few weeks ago, I blogged about Virunga National Park which was coming under increasing threats from rebels in the area. A good friend of mine, Emmanuel de Merode was recently named park Director and he is currently trying to get all the rangers to safety.

Last month they were moving the families of the rangers out of the park boundaries, in anticipation of more fighting in the area. It will be a while before we know the status of the gorillas. The fighting and the noise as well as the destruction of their environment will certainly impact the groups negatively.

Virunga National Park is a vitally important park. It's Africa's oldest park and Virunga is truly the crown jewel of Africa’s national parks - it contains over 50% of sub-Saharan Africa’s biodiversity and is home to 200 of the Earth’s last 700 critically-endangered mountain gorillas. In the past decade, 120 Rangers have lost their lives trying to save this little slice of eden.

Help the crisis by donating directly through the Virunga National Park Website.

More about this story:
Congolese Rebels Threaten Endangered Mountain Gorillas - About.com Environment
DR Congo rebels seize army camp - BBC 10/26/08
Fighting to Save Gorillas in the DRC - About.com Africa Travel

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