Baraza

Category: Gorillas | Date: Aug 20 2008 | By: baraza

In Africa we always say that when elephant bulls fight its the grass that suffers.

In this article published today on The National, Matt Brown interviews a ranger who work for CNDP (Nkundas’s faction) and who is paid US% 10 per month by a conservation organization for this dangerous job.

“When the rebels took over the territory, most of the rangers from the government-run wildlife service fled the area. Those that remained are considered to be working for the rebels.“The ICCN [the Congolese wildlife service] refused to work with us because we are rebels,” said Canisius Kanamahalagi, a conservationist working for the rebels in the gorilla sector of the park. “They decided to take all the rangers and said whoever works here is considered a rebel.””

Can you imagine being in the shoes of Canisius? It must be very tough. There’s so much controversy over whether conservationists should support these rangers (or are they rebels?).

Nkunda has been in control of the Mikeno sector for nearly a year now and judging from the International Crisis Group reports here it looks like he’s there to stay for the time being. What do you think? In the interest of gorilla protection, should conservation organizations support the rangers now working for the rebel Laurent Nkunda?

If you could advise Emmanuel what would you say?

Tags: DR Congo, gorilla, Interational Crisis Group, Nkunda

4 responses so far