Gorilla Journal 29, December 2004
Unconventional Warfare in the Virunga National Park
There are 480 park rangers based in stations and patrol posts throughout
the Virunga National Park, an area of some 7,900 km² with one of the most
diverse ecosystems in the world. The successful conservation of this park
relies heavily on the efforts and dedication of its park rangers, who
in the worst form of irony find themselves under attack and in desperate
need of protection.
It was at 2:45 in the morning of the 7th September 2004, that more than
100 bandits and ex-militia launched a devastating attack on the 40 small
houses that comprised the park station of Kabaraza. The Chief Warden was
too late to escape, but outside he could hear his team of 33 rangers hurrying
all the women and children into the bush while a few provided covering
fire. The rangers quickly realised that they were outnumbered and outgunned,
their AK47s proving no match for sophisticated heavy calibre weapons,
so they too fled into the bush.
In order to save his own life, the Chief Warden quickly opened all his
doors to give the impression that he too had fled, before scrambling up
into a hole in the ceiling of the food store, with a half sack of beans
serving as a stepladder. Less than a minute later several armed men ran
into his house and moved from room to room looting as they went. Only
his mattress and bed were left untouched. They moved into the communications
room and removed both the HF and VHF radio sets, the station's only
link with the outside world.
One man entered the store room and noticed the sack of beans and the hole
directly above it. He fired a shot piercing the hardboard ceiling. The
bullet narrowly missed the warden and exited through the corrugated roof.
Not satisfied that the shot would flush out anyone hiding in the roof,
he climbed up through the hole and shone his torchlight around an apparently
empty space. The warden was lying flat out on his stomach between two
wooden beams which provided sufficient cover while the torch light darted
from left to right before the bandit disappeared back down the hole.
Suddenly there was a scratching and tearing noise at the roof. They were
not after the warden but the solar panels bolted onto the corrugated iron
sheeting just a couple of feet from where he was lying. The panels came
away from their steel frame leaving the roof intact and the warden undiscovered.
An hour or so after the attack began and some 15 minutes after the last
of the bandits had left, the warden heard familiar voices coming from
down below. The rangers had returned and were looking for him. He called
down and asked them to move a table under the hole so that he could lower
himself down.
As he was re-grouping his men to establish who was missing and unaccounted
for, a labourer ran into the station from the same direction the attackers
had left. He told the Warden that he had been caught as he was trying
to flee and that he had been ordered at gun point to carry a sack of ducks
and chickens to a drop off point several kilometres away. As he returned
he passed the sentry post where he found one ranger dead and another seriously
injured. The Warden immediately sent a team of six rangers to bring back
the guard who was alive as well as the body of his comrade.
In the meantime, the remainder carried out a quick check of the station
to establish the extent of the damage. Each of the 40 houses had been
broken into and anything that had a resale value or would serve their
military operations had been taken. They ransacked the canteen and stripped
the dispensary bare. The most damaging blow was the theft of ten AK47
rifles left behind by the rangers as they fled into the bush, reducing
further their defensive capabilities against future attacks. The following
morning the injured ranger was taken to a nearby hospital in Rutshuru
while those who stayed behind mourned the body of the ranger who gave
his life trying to protect his comrades in arms.
Sadly attacks like this in the Virunga National Park are not isolated.
The park rangers have been systematically targeted over the last 10 months
for the procurement of weapons and food by rogue militia and military
groups operating within the park boundaries. Since January 2004, there
have been 13 attacks on park stations and patrol posts and only three
were successfully repulsed. Although the militias lack organisation and
military discipline, they are greater in number and better equipped than
the park rangers. The rangers simply do not have the training or the weapons
to properly defend themselves, and the militias and military groups know
this.
There are reports of militia groups working together to attack the larger
patrol posts, in some areas assisted by the local population, many of
whom are internally displaced and sought refuge in the park during the
war. They see the removal of the rangers as an opportunity to increase
the level of their own illegal exploitation of the park's resources,
and are therefore willing to provide the militias with the intelligence
necessary to carry out effective raids.
The injured ranger from Kabaraza has three bullets lodged in his skull,
and as a result of this injury and a stab wound to the temple he has been
left semi blind and paralysed down one side of his body. The rangers say
that in this violent period of national reunification their work is more
dangerous and unpredictable than it was during the recent civil war which
involved nine African nations and directly affected the lives of 50 million
Congolese.
Although the responsibility for the management of the park rests squarely
with the ICCN and the Congolese authorities, the international community
continues to play a key role in holding this fragile environment together.
While the diplomatic see-saw continues between neighbouring states in
an effort to reach a peaceful compromise, it remains a key responsibility
for conservation organisations to deliver support to those few dedicated
park rangers and their families who find their lives on the line in an
attempt to protect this world heritage site for the benefit of us all.
Robert D. J. Muir
Map showing the position of Kabaraza
Robert D. J. Muir worked on research and community-based conservation; since February 2004, he has been working to re-start the Frankfurt Zoological Society’s Virunga National Park Conservation Programme.