DRC: the perilous missions of the eco-guards of the Virunga park
Park sources say at least 200 rangers have paid with their lives in attacks going back more than a decade Virunga National Park / AFP / File
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3 min
Virunga National Park, Africa's oldest park, faces many challenges.
According to the management of the park, more than 12% of its area is now invaded by local communities and armed groups.
Illicit activities are organized there, including the exploitation of natural resources.
One of these activities is the illegal logging of timber by armed men and the civilian population.
The park eco-guards must reconcile firmness and pedagogy.
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With our special
correspondent in Virunga Park
,
Patient Ligodi
Bahati, 35, is an eco-guard, curator and head of the southern sector of the park.
Its mission: to preserve this green lung of Central Africa, to raise awareness about the cutting of wood used for heating but also transformed to make charcoal which is also called Makala.
This morning, his patrol overhears a group of civilians including women cutting down some trees in an area of mountain gorilla habitat.
Bahati is raising awareness.
"
Mom, why aren't you listening?"
How many times should you be prohibited from this practice?
Go and cultivate, don't destroy the forest,
”he urges her.
A week ago, Bahati and his team arrested a dozen people and intercepted their convoys.
“
We seized these Makala
[charcoal, editor's note] a week ago.
It was three trucks leaving Kalengera for Goma.
We grabbed them all and brought them here.
Everything was unloaded and the vehicles were taken to the auditorium.
"
Remand camp in the park
For poachers, judicial police officers can now act more quickly and refer those responsible to the competent authorities.
A pre-trial detention center has even been created in the heart of the park, in Rumangabo.
“
Some are taken here following poaching.
They kill the animals in the park.
They are verbalized and the case is forwarded to the prosecution and the auditor.
"
According to the park director, these
Makala
are sold in large cities such as Goma and Bukavu.
Charcoal trafficking amounts to $ 40 million per year, and over 80% comes from the park.
Much of this production takes place in areas controlled by armed groups.
Dangerous roads
An ecoguard of the Virunga National Park was killed Friday, October 15 in Chanika, in the territory of Lubero, in the territory of Beni.
He succumbed to his injuries after being shot by unidentified gunmen.
Occupied for several months by Mai-Mai militiamen, Chanika was recaptured in early October by loyalist forces during an operation led by soldiers and eco-guards.
Weapon in his right hand, beret in place, Bahati takes his place aboard a service vehicle.
He takes the dangerous national road n ° 4 leaving Rumangabo for Kibumba.
“
We are obliged to escort the tourists who come,” he
explains.
It's the same with our staff.
We cannot leave them alone on dangerous roads.
"
The Nyatura militiamen, a faction of the FDLR, are sometimes located about a kilometer from the roadway.
And kidnappings are not uncommon.
It is also in this area that
the Italian ambassador Luca Attanasio was killed
in an ambush last February.
Currently in the park, more than 2,000 militiamen are active.
Unlike other protected areas in the world, the eco-guards here do not just do pure environmental conservation.
They also organize convoys to protect civilians every day on the section of National Road No. 2 that crosses the park.
Difficult work in the face of these militiamen also active in the exploitation of natural resources.
No less than
22 eco-guards have been killed from 2020
to date.
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