Congo Rebels Said to Kill, Eat Gorillas

A female mountain gorilla called Mugeni, 15, and her five month old son, Bonane, in the Kahuzi Biega Nature Park near the town of Bukavu , Democratic Republic of Congo, are seen in this Sunday, May 2, 2004 file photo. Rebels in eastern Congo have killed and eaten two silverback mountain gorillas, conservationists said Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2007, sparking fears more of the endangered animals may have been slaughtered in the lawless region. Only about 700 mountain gorillas remain in the world, 380 of them spread across a range of volcanic mountains straddling the borders of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda in Central Africa. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam) (Schalk Van Zuydam - AP)

Virunga park has been ravaged by poachers and deforestation for more than a decade. The 1994 Rwandan genocide saw millions of refugees spill into Congo, marking the beginning of an era of unrest, lawlessness and clashes between militias and rebel groups.

Mineral-rich Congo, which held its first democratic elections in more than four decades last year, is struggling to recover from a 1998-2002 war that drew in the armies of more than half a dozen African nations.

The job of protecting the country's parks falls on local rangers, and the risks are high. In Virunga alone, some 97 rangers have died on duty since 1996, the Africa Conservation Fund said.

On his blog, Ngobobo also described being shot at and beaten by the military, who he and other rangers were trying to persuade to stop cutting down the forest.

Richard Leakey, a conservationist credited with helping end the slaughter of elephants in Kenya during the 1980s, said: "The survival of these last remaining mountain gorillas should be one of humanity's greatest priorities. Their future lies with a small number of very brave rangers risking their lives with very little support from the outside world."

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On the Net:

Virunga Park Warden Paulin Ngobobo's blog, http://www.wildlifedirect.org/gorillaprotection