Endangered primates caught in Congolese conflict

As the United Nations warns of a growing humanitarian crisis in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the advance of the M23 rebel militia might also affect the gorillas and chimps in the region.

Last week the M23 rebels took the city of Goma and vowed to march south to Bukavu. As well as the armed conflict, there have been reports of the murder and abduction of women and children. Yesterday the rebels announced that they will withdraw from Goma but their intentions are far from clear. If they do move on to Bukavu, in their path is the Primate Rehabilitation Centre of Lwiro, which holds more than 50 chimps and 70 monkeys, and the GRACE gorilla sanctuary in Kasugho, which cares for gorillas wounded by poachers or armed conflict.

"In addition to the captive apes, we are concerned about wild ape populations ? chimpanzees, lowland gorillas, and the critically endangered mountain gorillas," says Anna Behm Masozera of the International Gorilla Conservation Programme in Kigali, Rwanda.

The Lwiro sanctuary put its contingency plan into action last week: they have stockpiled enough food, water, fuel, medications and cleaning supplies necessary to run the sanctuary for 15 days, says its director, Carmen Vidal, should the need arise.

Shots and riots

If the rebels continue their advance towards Lwiro, the plan is for some workers to seek safety at a nearby UN camp, and for some of the expatriate workers to return to their countries, says Vidal. The staff that choose to remain would continue to care for the animal residents. "Although the majority of Lwiro's animals are semi-free-ranging, they need to be fed three times a day as the forest doesn't have sufficient food for all of them."

"There have been shots and rioting near us in the past week as tensions rise among the various militia factions and within local communities," says Vidal. As a result, Lwiro's animals have "become nervous, display stereotypical stress behaviours and some have even stopped eating".

Luitzen Santman, the director of GRACE, says that his sanctuary has also stockpiled extra food and supplies and that the United Nations peacekeeping mission, MONUSCO, is on standby to provide extra protection if needed. "We are experienced with insecurity in the region" he says. Fortunately, GRACE is located "at a very remote field site that has no political or military relevance. Field conservation sites like GRACE that stay politically neutral seem not to attract attention of rebel groups."

Santman says that primates are unlikely to be directly targeted by the rebel groups to make a political point, but says there might be an increase in them being killed for bushmeat as fighters move through their habitat.

Gorillas missing

Since the M23 reached the Virunga National Park near Goma in July, they have more or less cooperated with the park authorities, allowing staff to search for missing gorilla families but this became impossible recently when fighting in the region intensified. Two mountain gorilla families are currently unaccounted for.

"There are many concerns in this time of uncertainty but the biggest is that for three months we have been unable to redeploy our rangers into the gorilla sector of the park," says chief warden Emmanuel de Merode.

This problem is exacerbated by the unavailability of the light aircraft normally used by the Virunga workers for surveillance and monitoring of the 7800-square-kilometre park. The park's staff moved it to Goma airport earlier this month to stop it falling into rebel hands, but they were unable to risk moving it again when it became clear that the city was a target. The UN is currently in control of the airport but they are surrounded by the M23. Without the aircraft at their disposal, the park workers are unable to keep track of their animals.

It is not only the M23 group that Virunga workers have to contend with. Some sections of the park are controlled by militia groups of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), who along with the Mai Mai Pareco group have used the M23's battle with Congolese troops to step up their illegal poaching activities.

In the past two weeks an elephant and a buffalo have been killed in the park's central sector. Destruction of primates' habitat is also an increasing problem. Groups such as the FDLR Mandevu, who operate out of the park just north of Goma, finance themselves through the sale of illegal charcoal, produced by burning timber from the park's forests.

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