The Virunga national park, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, confirms its status as one of the most dangerous protected areas on the planet. In the past twenty years, almost two hundred rangers have been killed in Africa's oldest nature reserve, known for being home to some of the last remaining specimens of mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei). On 24 April last, in the North Kivu province, the bloodiest attack in the park's history took place, killing nineteen people and leaving several others injured.

The militia attack

A civilian convoy escorted by fifteen park rangers, engaged in transporting food supplies from Goma to Rumangabo, was attacked by around sixty armed men, according to Cosma Wilungula, director general of the Istituto congolese per la conservazione della natura (Iccn).

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The attackers are part of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, a Hutu rebel militia responsible for numerous terrorist attacks whose leaders are said to be linked to the 1994 genocide. Nineteen people are reported to have lost their lives in the attack, thirteen of them rangers, and several others are said to have been wounded, some seriously.

An attack on the population

"The park rangers were not the target of the attack — they lost their lives while trying to return fire in defence of the local population," reads a statement issued by Virunga park, which identifies civilians, not rangers, as the attackers' target.

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A park at war

Virunga park, in addition to being home to a wide variety of protected species — including, alongside the famous gorillas, eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) — provides shelter to Hutu militias, which control the south-western part of the reserve. The rebels, who fund their illegal activities through poaching and the illicit trafficking of gold and timber, hold the local population to ransom and have attacked and kidnapped several tourists, forcing the park to remain closed for several months in 2018 and to strengthen its defences.

The rangers' grief

In April 2018, five rangers and a driver were killed in an ambush, most likely carried out by the same criminal group. Around six hundred rangers patrol the park's 7,800 square kilometres, risking their lives every day to protect its priceless natural heritage.

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"Virunga national park is no stranger to the tragic loss of life, particularly of rangers," said Chris Galliers, president of the International ranger federation (Irf). "However, this does not diminish the shock felt by the global ranger community at news of the senseless killing of rangers who risked their own lives to defend civilians."