Two Rare Mountain Gorillas Killed in Congo
9/18/98
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Title: Two Rare Mountain Gorillas Killed in Congo
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 9/18/98
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Poachers shot and killed two rare and endangered
mountain gorillas in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, near
where rebels are fighting the government of President Laurent Kabila, a
U.S. conservation group said Friday.
The African Wildlife Foundation, a major contributor to the Virunga
National Park where the gorillas live, said the poachers killed Birori, a
juvenile male, and Gasigwa, a three-year-old female, on Sept. 3,
apparently while hunting monkeys.
``The deaths represent a devastating setback in our fight against
extinction,'' said foundation president Michael Wright.
Just more than 600 of the gorillas survive, in the forests around the
point where Congo, Uganda and Rwanda meet. Strife has disrupted the
operations of the parks set up to save them.
Four of the gorillas were killed in cross fire in the Virunga National
Park in May 1997, during the fighting that led to Kabila's taking power
in Kinshasa.
Katie Frohardt, a spokeswoman for the African Wildlife Foundation, said
there was a loose link between the fighting and the latest gorilla
killings, since most of the armed men in the area belong to rebel groups.
The fighting has frightened off foreign tourists, who helped finance the
park system, and many guards have not received their salaries since
January, the foundation said.
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.