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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Congo army leaves national park, rebels stay |
| 2008-09-04 |
| More than 1,000 soldiers have left a national park that has been on the front lines of fighting in eastern Congo in a move the park director said was intended to preserve an environment that is home to endangered gorillas, hippos and active volcanoes. However, rebels still occupy a sector of the reserve that is home to some of the world's last remaining mountain gorillas, officials said Wednesday. The decision to move out all government troops and their families _ about 6,000 people in all _ came after negotiations between Virunga National Park Director Emmanuel de Merode and Gen. Vainqueur Mayala, the army's commanding officer, Merode said in a statement. The move aims to "reduce human presence in the area and preserve the flora and fauna of Africa's oldest national park," de Merode said. Only about 700 mountain gorillas remain in the world, an estimated 380 of them in a range of volcanoes straddling Congo's borders with Uganda and Rwanda. Only 200 are believed to live on the Congo side of the border, about 72 of which have been habituated to contact with people. Ten of them were killed last year. The reserve is located in a lawless swath of Congo adjacent to neighboring Rwanda and Uganda that the government has struggled to control for years. Congolese and Rwandan rebels and militia have hidden in the park's dense forests for more than a decade and used parts of it as bases to launch attacks. Last week, the army and rebels led by Laurent Nkunda exchanged machine-gun and mortar fire outside the reserve in one of the fiercest clashes in the region this year. |
| Posted by:Fred |