Two rangers from Virunga National Park have been killed and a third injured, authorities at the renowned reserve in the troubled east of the Democratic Republic of Congo said on Saturday.
Virunga Park covers part of North Kivu (nearly 60,000 km2), especially along the border with Rwanda and Uganda.
A jewel of nature famous for its mountain gorillas and volcanoes, this reserve is also infested with armed groups.
A region plagued by tensions
The rangers "conducted a routine patrol in Chondo in the central sector" of the park, the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN) said in a statement.
According to the organization, they were attacked by "a group of armed men assimilated to the Mai-Mai", community militias.
The rebels of the March 23 Movement (M23), a former rebellion of Congolese Tutsi supported by Rwanda and Uganda, have seized vast territories in eastern DRC in recent months and occupy large parts of Virunga Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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