NAIROBI (AFP) — Park rangers on Friday searched for endangered mountain gorillas in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo amid reports of fresh clashes between the army and renegade troops, an official said.
Wildlife Direct spokeswoman Samantha Newport said the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICCN) rangers were combing the Virunga National Park in search of 50 gorillas in four family groups.
Forces loyal to cashiered general Laurent Nkunda, a powerful local leader, on Monday attacked and stole equipment from Jomba and Bikenge patrol posts in Virunga National Park, forcing rangers to flee and exposing the gorillas to new dangers.
"Rangers near Bukima (another patrol post) are currently searching for the four mountain gorilla families," Newport told AFP.
She explained that they were particulary concerned for one family called Rugendo -- the most visited by tourists -- because some were killed in July, slashing its number to five members.
"The fighting has added more pressure on this family that has already suffered a lot," Newport said.
Rangers are yet to return to Jomba and Bikenge patrol posts even though the rebels are reported to have moved eastwards towards Rwanda, the spokeswoman explained.
The WWF expressed concern at the safety of the endangered species since they had been left unprotected by the clashes.
"The UN announces a truce between warring factions one day and the next we hear its been broken," said World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) Marc Languy, who is working in the national park.
"All we want is return of peace for the security of its people and wildlife," Languy said in a statement.
But the DRC Foreign Minister warned that Nord Kivu faces an "all-out war," dampening prospects of definitive end to the latest hostilities that have displaced civilians and imperilled gorillas.
"Combat continues, we are fighting to retake our positions," an officer in the Ninth Brigade told AFP, reached by phone from the provincial capital Goma.
The WWF and ICCN have provided the providing maps of the park's boundaries to the UN to help ensure that the displaced people do not encroach into the park as was the case in 1994, the statement added.
Nine mountain gorillas have been killed and two were still missing in Virunga national park since January. The deaths, some blamed on Nkunda's men, have outraged conservationists, who responded by pouring funds for protection.
After two were slaughtered and eaten in January, the renegade troops pledged to halt the killings in a meeting with Virunga park officials mediated by the UN and Congolese army.
The mountain gorillas are a major tourist attraction in the Virunga park, but poaching remains endemic.
Only about 700 critically endangered mountain gorillas remain in the wild, all of them living in the mountains of Rwanda, Uganda and the eastern DRC.
Nkunda's rebels and other armed groups are accused of poaching there and encroaching on their habitats.
The UN mission in DR Congo, MONUC, said Thursday it had negotiated a ceasefire between the DRC army and renegade troops, but both resides reported resumption of clashes in Rutshuru region of the Nord Kivu province.
Local and foreign militias as well as Congolese soldiers, poachers and illegal miners regularly cross this area of the Virunga park, one of Africa's largest national parks and a UNESCO world heritage site. Sometimes they occupy parts of it.
The mountain gorillas are a major tourist attraction in the Virunga park, but poaching of wildlife there is endemic.
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