Baraza

Category: WildlifeDirect news | Date: Nov 24 2007 | By: admin

Hello, Jambo and Salut from Congo! I just arrived a few days ago from our Nairobi office where I starting working with WildlifeDirect.org. Every day has been a new adventure and now thanks to Jonathan, Will and Paula, we have the Baraza blog to download the ramblings in our heads!

People with money move around Goma by motorbike partly because the roads are mostly terrible

Goma, the capital city of north Kivu Province in DR Congo must be one of the most extreme places in the world. On the one hand, the environment is spectacular: the sky at night is lit up by Nyiragongo, an active volcano and the mountains surround the lake side town which trail into Lake Kivu. As we descended into Goma by plane, I could not help but think that this surely is the Switzerland of Africa.

And so it should be except for the tragic fact that Goma is situated at the heart of countless civil wars. Just 13kms away, one of the most brutal wars ever is being fought between General Nkunda’s rebels and the army. Thousands have been murdered; hundreds of thousands have been internally displaced and the fragile ecosystem of Virunga National Park which has one of the greatest biodiversities in the world is barely holding out from complete destruction.

At the heart of this extremity are the Mountain Gorillas, who, like the people are victims of a senseless human dispute. Many find it difficult to consider the welfare and importance of protecting wildlife when there is so much human suffering. In this case, however, with only 700 mountain gorillas left in the world and incidents like the July massacre when 5 gorillas were murdered, their suffering and risk of extinction cannot be ignored.

Over 120 rangers have been murdered in the line of duty in the last 10 years and the situation as you all know has become so risky that all the rangers have moved to the safety of urban areas. I met Didi, Innocent, Balemba (who blogs for the Rumangabo Youth Alliance) amongst others. What a great bunch of people! They wait patiently to be able to return to the Park but you can see their anxiety as each day passes and nobody really knows the fate of the gorillas.

Those less fortunate are amongst the most resourceful people on earth - this is a Chukudu (completely wooden bicycle), a common means of transport in Goma

Coming here has made me respect and admire everyone even more. We take so much for granted in Nairobi and complain bitterly when our internet connection goes down for five minutes. In Congo, electricity, running water and roads are a luxury let alone the internet. People live and work in here in some of the toughest conditions in the world but this has not stopped anyone from doing the best they can to protect our world heritage.

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