Fighting in The Congo Force Mountain Gorilla's into the Crossfire
10/30/98
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Fighting in The Congo Force Mountain Gorilla's into the
Crossfire
Source: BBC News
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 10/30/98
The World Wide Fund for Nature has warned that fighting in the east of The
Democratic Republic of Congo could have disastrous consequences for
wildlife including the already endangered mountain gorillas and northern
white rhinos.
There are only 23 northern white rhinoceros left in Congo
President Laurent Kabila promised to help the endangered wildlife in his
country, but the conflict has intensified since then.
The northern white rhinoceros is down to only 23 in number, while fewer
than 600 mountain gorillas are left in the world.
Half of these live in the rugged volcanoes of Virunga Park in the
Democratic Republic of Congo, the region where fighting by rebels trying
to oust President Laurent Kabila's government is concentrated.
Virunga is Africa's oldest national park and has a unique tropical
mountain forest. But the animals there could easily fall prey to
profiteering amid the chaos of conflict.
Deborah Snelson, World Wildlife Fund representative in Nairobi, said:
"Two mountain gorillas were killed last month and it could happen again
any time, given the scale of the conflict."
The northern white rhinoceros is a rare subspecies of white rhino, of
which there are about 7,600 in the world, nearly all of them in southern
Africa.
Garamba, in northeastern Congo, has the last wild population of northern
white rhinos, but all contact with managers and keepers of the wildlife
park in the region has been lost.
"There is no telling what has happened ... to the rhinos," said Deborah
Snelson.
The Fund said the increased presence of dangerous firearms and the
disruption of conservation activities were a dangerous combination.