Archive for the ‘My Team’ Category
This is Atamato. As you have already seen on the Gorilla Protection blog, a group of rangers from my team were attacked on Monday as they travelled on a WWF truck between Lulimbi and Ishasha. I had seen them leave my station at about 4PM- there hadn’t been any problems on the road that day, so there was no reason to expect an attack.
The spot where the attack took place
Blood on the ground The first I heard of the attack was from a phone call at 7PM from my deputy at the Kasusu patrol post. It was too late by then for me to travel safely, so first thing the next morning I went down to Ishasha to find out what happened. This is what I was told: At about 5PM the truck approached a man on a motorcycle who had been stopped by a group of about 15 men. As they stopped, the group suddenly turned their attention to the truck and starting shooting without warning. A second group of men came from the right side of the road and fired shots as well.
Kambale, the driver- see the bullet holes in the windshield.
The bullet holes on the right side of the truck. This is where the women killed were sitting. The rangers were caught completely by surprise and heavily outnumbered, but were able to return fire before escaping. The 18 year old victim died on the spot and Kasereka Matembela’s wife ran away into the bush before dying of her injuries. Others hid in the bush or under the truck itself, as the bandits stole everything in the truck, including phones, money, and GPS equipment. They even took the mattresses that the WWF staff had brought to sleep on in Lulimbi. As the bandits escaped with their loot, the man on the motorcycle was able to flee. He drove to the nearest military base to inform the army, who came immediately to rescue the survivors and take the injured to the hospital.
Ranger Kasai’s wife was hit by three bullets.
Ranger Kakuru was hit in the arm- see the bullet the doctors removed. One of the WWF staff, Methode Uhoze, was also hit by a bullet in the foot and lost a toe. The press are reporting that the bandits were Mai-Mai, but we are not sure if it was them or the FDLR who also terrorize this area. Thank you everyone for your concern and kind words.
I have some sad news. Last week Ranger Kalibumba, 36 years old with 8 children, was shot dead at point blank range with 5 bullets to the chest and abdomen by a member of the Congolese military. He was one of my Rangers at Museya, the patrol post that is being rebuilt at the moment and falls under my command. So what happened? Well it seems that a soldier based in Kavinyonge had a violent argument with his commander, over a suspected case of infidelity. The soldier, attempting to flee, encountered first a doctor on a motorbike, whom he shot and stole his bike. When Ranger Kalibumba attempted to intercept, he was also shot down in a cowardly and brutal fashion. The soldier then went on to kill 2 more women and injured a 3rd - all innocent bystanders. The soldier - who I can only imagine has lost all sense of reason - has yet to be caught. This once again highlights not only how fragile my country is, and how lawless - but how the military should not be in the park.
We held a solemn service for him and his family at the park headquarters in Mutsora.
We have known for some time that there is local population cutting down trees inside the park in the Museya region, but until now we did not have the fuel to travel up the river to properly monitor the situation. We did an aller-retour, a 1 day patrol, to the area with the new Chef de PP Ishango, who is Bsombwere on the far right of the picture. We soon found evidence of tree cutting and took GPS coordinates of where these illegal activities are taking place. There used to be many more trees in this area, but we see that recently there has been much logging and now many of these trees have gone. With more patrolling of the area we quickly found one of the culprits, and discovered that it is local women who are cutting down the trees. It is allowed to take dead wood from the park, as often there are elephants who knock down trees which would otherwise go to waste, however this woman informed us that she was cutting live wood to sell in Kyavinyonge. With further investigation we found another eight women in the area who were using machetes and axes to cut wood from live trees. Normally infractions within the park incur fines, but these women have nothing. Instead we talked to them about why they shouldn’t be cutting down trees in the park, and told them to tell the other women from the village that we won’t allow these activities to continue inside the park.
As you know there was a meeting held on Saturday between myself, Norbert Mushenzi, the Director of the ICCN for the Northern sector of Virunga, Elie, Commander of the Advance Force, Troop Leader Balikwisha, and Ephrem, Samantha and William from WildlifeDirect.
I will tell you about this meeting, but first I must reflect on some of the decisions made before I give details on this blog. This is a sensitive issue and although I am sure there is no internet in Muramba, I must think about what information I am to make public. Thank you for your understanding. I will however tell you more about the rebels in Muramba. It is too long that they have been able to cause such destruction here in Congo. It was previously stated on this blog that there were 40 rebels in the area, but recent intelligence has said that this figure is closer to 50. Even though the Mai Mai live outside of the law, taking food from the villagers, traditionally they have been able to settle with communities because of the promises that they make in return. The same is so in Muramba where the Mai Mai have promised to help villagers poach freely and cultivate within the park, which is of course against the laws of Congo. They also promise to put pressure on ICCN to move the boundaries of the park, to the villagers’ advantage, even though the boundaries have been set by law since the establishment of the park, back in 1925. More worryingly, we have also learnt that they have promised to give hippo meat to the villagers, a delicacy here. With the mass slaughter of all other hippo groups in Lake Edward at the end of the last year, the Mai Mai can only have plans to kill the hippos here in Ishango. We have also learnt from intelligence that the situation in Muramba is about to change. Tensions are rising between the villagers and the Mai Mai because of the Mai Mai’s failure to deliver on any of their promises. The rebels have also been cutting down banana groves of the villagers for their own consumption, as well as bullying them for other food. At the same time, they have also managed to recruit men from the surrounding area to join their rebel group, which is why previous estimates of their number has now risen, and we think that this could be for one of two reasons. The leader of this rebel group is known as Jackson, and it is believed that he wants a larger group of men underneath him before he enters the Camp de Brassage; a government initiative to disband rebels and integrate them into the Congolese army. It is thought that he wants to do this so that when he enters the Congolese army he will have more leverage to negotiate himself into a stronger and better paid position within the army. However, the Mai Mai could also be strengthening their position to take on Nkunda’s men, who, it has been reported, has turned his back on the current mixing of his men into the Congolese army. Whatever the situation, neither looks good for the wildlife here. Unfortunately the poaching of hippos brings in money for the rebel groups to help their cause, and this is already a tactic that they have used only too recently. Tomorrow I will post up more on our meeting and how we are going to use your donations to strengthen our position here in Ishango.
Atamato lives at Ishango with his wife Mawanjo Bhatiyo, and four other park rangers.
Together they work to protect all of the wildlife in the Ishango area. WildlifeDirect have provided Atamato with a camera so that he can record the daily lives of both his team and the hippos, and hopefully through this blog gain the support he needs to secure the future of the last remaining group of hippos in Virunga National Park.
Above, Atamato with Ephrem, the Director of WildlifeDirect, and with me on the left, Atamato’s messenger. Now that the introductions are made I leave you with Atamato. This is his blog.
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