The guns they hold are not to protect humans but to protect animals from poachers and rebel militia. Armed rangers take on the difficult task to protect the apes in Congo. Their relationship with the flora and fauna is intense, coupled with an advanced force training to beat the uneven odds.
This is the place where more people have died because of the war than in any other conflict since World War II. The task ahead for the rangers is a tough one. Many times they end up working long hours, seven days a week.They also help with
data collection and analysis by ICCN staff. In the Virunga national park, there are barely 700 rangers but over 40,000 rebels and poachers. Yet these rangers find solance in the saved lives of the gorillas which is exactly why the militia tried to sabotage their conservationist efforts by shooting four mountain gorillas dead dead.
Virunga National Park (VNP), Africa’s oldest, was created in 1925. The Park is managed by the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN) with several international and national NGO partners.
Mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringe beringei) are classified as Critically Endangered by the World Conservation Union (IUCN). Fewer than 400 individuals survive in the Virunga Volcanic Mountains of Central Africa.
Source: Telegraph
