Fatal Attack on Conservationists' Truck in Gorilla Park

Nick Wadhams in Nairobi, Kenya
for National Geographic News

July 11, 2008

In an African reserve infamous for gorilla murders, unknown gunners opened fire on a truck belonging to wildlife conservationists on Monday.

The attack killed two women and underscored the danger faced by humans in Virunga National Park in Democratic Republic of the Congo, one of the world's most ecologically diverse—and politically contentious—nature reserves.

The gunners turned their weapons on the truck, owned by the conservation organization WWF, which confirms the account. Congolese park rangers had driven the truck toward the armed men after they had stopped a motorcycle in the Congo's North Kivu Province, home to half the world's 700 wild mountain gorillas.

An 18-year-old girl in the back of the truck died instantly. Another woman, identified as the wife of Virunga park ranger Kasereka Matembela, died of her wounds after fleeing.

Several other people in the truck, which was carrying 11 people, were also hurt, including WWF staff member Methode Uhoze. A bullet struck him in the toe.

"Caught Completely by Surprise"

"The rangers were caught completely by surprise and heavily outnumbered but were able to return fire before escaping," Virunga ranger Atamato Madrandele, who was not present at the attack, wrote in a blog published by the conservation group WildlifeDirect. (WildlifeDirect is funded in part by National Geographic Society, which owns National Geographic News.)

"The 18 year old victim died on the spot and Kasereka Matembela's wife ran away into the bush before dying of her injuries," Madrandele wrote.

"Others hid in the bush or under the truck itself, as the bandits stole everything in the truck, including phones, money, and GPS equipment. They even took the mattresses that the WWF staff had brought to sleep on. … "

Motives

WWF said it believed the attack was not politically motivated but that the gunmen were probably on the hunt for loot.

"We really believe that it was not our car that was really targeted as a conservation NGO working in the area," said Thierry Bodson, WWF's Virunga director of operations. "It was basically bandits who we hadn't encountered before who were looking for things."

Kemal Saiki, spokesperson for the UN peacekeeping mission in the region, said, "You can have skirmishes and attacks, and it's hard to tell if they're politically motivated or just criminal activity. Are they just looking for something or is it a political statement?"

Bodson said that his organization knew the area was not entirely secure but that officials believed driving was safe. The truck had been traveling between the towns of Lulimbi and Ishasha, where WWF staff were teaching rangers how to use the GPS equipment.

Multiple Militias

The attack highlights the volatility in North Kivu Province, which has become a haven for several armed groups.

Among them are Congolese Army soldiers; Rwandan Hutus believed responsible for the 1994 genocide of Tutsis; guerillas of the Mai Mai movement, which began as a peasant uprising in the 1960s; and Tutsi fighters allied with dissident Congolese general Laurent Nkunda.

Conflict between Nkunda's forces and the Congolese Army continues to kill an estimated 40,000 people each month in eastern Congo. The region also saw two civil wars in the 1990s that are believed to have killed over four million people—more than any other conflict since World War II.

Over 110 rangers have been slain in the last ten years trying to protect wildlife in Virunga, a 2-million-acre (79,000-hectare) UN World Heritage Site. Caught in the middle are the mountain gorillas.

In July of last year, unknown assailants shot and killed five members of the Rugendo gorilla family in what is believed to have been a political statement against the rangers (interactive time line of conflict in Virunga).

(See "Wildlife Park Official Arrested in Gorilla Killings" [March 25, 2008].)

The Virunga rangers are trying to crack down on the harvesting of wood for charcoal, which fuels stoves in the nearby city of Goma and neighboring Rwanda, where charcoal production has been banned.

The area is also patrolled by UN peacekeepers, who have sometimes fought back against the militia groups.

Despite the difficulties, WWF said it would not pull out of Virunga.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the families who have lost loved ones and with those injured," WWF said in a news release.

"We will continue to support conservation efforts in this very critical region."