Congo fighting threatens rare gorillas
by Edward Harris

The Associated Press    Translate This Article
22 May 2007

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) - Renegade fighters attacked observation posts in an eastern Congo nature reserve, killing one ranger and threatening to slaughter a band of rare gorillas if security forces launch a counteroffensive, conservationists said Monday.

About 200 of the Mayi-Mayi fighters who remain active after Congo's ruinous 1998-2002 civil war attacked three posts Sunday in Virunga National Park, Wildlife Direct said in a statement. One ranger died and three were injured in the attack, said the group, which is active in the area.

If security forces attack, the Mayi-Mayi are threatening to wipe out a nearby group of gorillas, it said.

The fighters ``are doing everything to sabotage the good intentions of well-intentioned conservationists,'' the group quoted park director Norbert Mushenzi as saying.

Fighters in the region killed endangered mountain gorillas in January and Mayi-Mayi fighters machine-gunned hundreds of hippos in eastern Congo in late 2006, the group said.

Many people in deeply impoverished eastern Congo subsist on ``bush meat''... The region is deeply impoverished after years of neglect, war and ongoing strife, sullying efforts by conservationists to protect endangered species.

The Mayi-Mayi fought on the side of government troops during Congo's war, and many have resisted joining a postwar army in the country also guarded by thousands of U.N. peacekeeping forces.

Famed for their looting ... sprees, the Mayi-Mayi also claim many parts of Congo's east as their domain, bringing them into conflict with park rangers charged with protecting the Central African nation's dwindling wildlife.

Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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