Archive for the ‘Threats’ 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.
Well I am quickly realizing that we face many of the same problems at Lulimbi that we used to face at Ishango. Here you can see we discovered the very same baskets used by illegal fishermen. The fishermen are also targeting the spawning grounds - totally forbidden.
People can also be quite industrious and dig entire canals to fish illegally.
Finally, very sadly, we found this dead hippo floating in the water. You can see the wound from which we believe it died. We are still not sure if it was accidental or deliberate. The fact that is was found floating means that no poachers were around when it died. But we do not know how the wound was inflicted.
I have lots of important news to tell you. My bosses at the Congolese Wildlife Authority (ICCN) have decided to move me for a short period to Lulimbi park station. This is still in Virunga National Park, about 3 hours by boat across Lake Edward. If you go to this map, and head south/south-west from Ishango you will see it. Right next to Uganda. So why the move? Well the Rangers are short staffed at present in Lulimbi, and need urgent assistance with anti-poaching patrols. My bosses decided I was the most appropriate one for the job. In Lulimbi there is fantastic wildlife as much of it is returning to Congo over the border from Uganda. But poaching is a significant problem too. I have just been sent these 2 photos below which are pretty grim of poached elephants. It was the military who killed them. So we need to reinforce the area and prevent these atrocities. My experience and successes in Ishango will help.
Who will replace me during my absence? Godefroid Wambale, whom you all know. He returned only recently from studying in Tanzania, and will be excellent for my job. Regarding donations, please keep the donations coming. We still need the same funds for the work to go on - the patrols, the salaries for the Rangers, the rations - all of it. The monthly salary of $150 that I used to receive from donations will temporarily go to Godefroid, and he will continue to provide information on this blog. I will try also to provide you with updates from Lulimbi, but there is no internet access there and it is very remote so that is going to be difficult. I cannot reiterate enough how much your support has meant to me over the past year and few months. This has been such an amazing experience. Finally, I would like to thank Nancy from the Alexander Abraham Foundation for the recent $5,000 donation. So so generous. This will make a big difference to anti-poaching patrols in Ishango. Godefroid will provide details of how this money is being spent. Thank you everyone. Atamato.
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.
I wanted to share these photos with you. They are not from Ishango but from Kahuzi Biega National Park, south of Virunga National Park. This is where the Grauer’s Gorillas live, with elephants, antelope and other animals.
Paulin, a Ranger, stands next to elephant skulls - a shocking sight.
And elephant teeth.
In the background are the same elephant skulls, and in the fore you can see gorilla skulls.
Antelope skull.
Grauer’s Gorilla skull.
And the elephant leg bones - next to Paulin’s legs.
Of course all these skulls and bones have been collected over an extended period of time. But it just goes to show the devastating effect of poaching on our country’s resources. Kahuzi Biega National Park is less known that Virunga - but is equally important in the conservation of some of the world’s most precious creatures.
This is Samantha. I recently visited the illegal fishing village of Kavinyonge. Illegal because it is in Virunga National Park. And it has about 20,000 inhabitants.
I took this aerial photo a couple of months ago. Some of you may remember. Kavinyonge is the settlement you can see and Ishango is at the mouth of the Semliki River.
We set off in the boat from Ishango. It takes about half an hour. Atamato is there in the grey t-shirt.
This is what it looks like when you get there. Blissfully quiet. And with a definite smell of fish about it. Really just a little paradise on the edge of Lake Edward.
And then people come out of the woodwork. Kids are clearly not used to out-of-towners like me.
So they all crowded around, utterly curious to see the “muzungu”.
We were going to Museya. That is where a patrol post is being rehabilitated and I wanted to take a look. It’s about 10 minutes away on a bike. We had to get gas first.
By this point all the kids were overflowing with curiosity!
And although they don’t get many visitors, they definitely knew the deal with digital photography. They all wanted to see their picture after I had taken it.
So this is the old patrol post. It is one of 6 overseen by Atamato and has up to 6 Rangers based there.
And to the right you can see the new construction. It will be very smart when it’s done and much more waterproof.
Some Rangers sleep in the tents there that were donated through this blog. These are behind the new construction.
And then we drove back down the main road of the town. The blue plastic bag was covering the wing mirrors of the motorbike I was on, for some reason. There isn’t actually much traffic there so I wasn’t too worried.
And then when we got back to the lake edge more kids had arrived. They had literally come to see me. They all looked healthy children on whole, as compared to so many you see here who are suffering from malnutrition.
This little guy on the right was the most daring of them all!
We got a warm goodbye.
And so headed back to the tranquility of Ishango’s hippos. Bliss.
Samantha
I have blogged before about my Rangers and I finding illegal boats used by fishermen who seek to fish in the spawning grounds of Ishango’s waters, which is illegal. It simply means we will run out of fish. And I have told you before about the nets & cages used by these illegal fishermen.
Well in the last month we have found quite a few illegal boats, nets and cages. Feast your eyes!
These are the cages that we find in the shallows of the Semliki River. All kinds of fish can be caught with these cages, made from metal wires.
Here are 2 illegal fishermen with their cages. The fish swims in, and then cannot get out, but can happily swim around for a couple of days until the fishermen get back.
This is one illegal boat we found. It has rather a lot of flip flops in it! Usually the fishermen would sink it and cover it with grass so we could not spot it. But in this case they were careless.
And another illegal boat. This is not a very stable boat, and you can easily tip over.
This boat - the only one of this lot we did NOT destroy - was full of illegal fishing nets too. We ended up painting it and we use it to get across the river.
Here are some of the fish that had been caught with the nets above in the spawning grounds. This is actually a lot more fish that they used to catch - which is a sign that the fish are coming back.
Illegal boat number 4. If you look closely on the side you will see the boat is called “Avion de Guer” - Avion de Guerre is translated as War Plane. This one was chopped up too. So much for their War Plane.
More nets and fish were in this one.
As was this illegal fishermen. We made him carry his fishing nets up the hill to the patrol post, where we fined him, and then destroyed the nets.
And illegal boat number 5.
This is all the result of a month’s work - and again possible because of your donations. Thank you.
At the end of November I told you all that the Mai Mai rebels had finally left Muramba and begun the integration process into the national army - a process locally known as “brassage”. The Mai Mai were responsible for the fatal attack in the park in May, and were supporting the 2-3,000 illegal villagers of Muramba, which is a stone’s throw from Ishango. So they were a real threat to us, and more importantly to the park.
Today I am pleased to report that Rangers have moved into the village. They have yet to build permanent quarters, and are still in tents, but this is a positive move. The Mai Mai continue the brassage and show no sign of returning.
So we hope that scenes of the November 06 hippo slaughter like these below will become a thing of the past.
I have some sad news. We found the rotting corpse of an elephant in the park. The Rangers came across it when they were out on a 5-day patrol.
The elephant had been dead probably 1-2 weeks. Decomposition and discoloration of the skin was well underway.
The worst part is how the elephant died. We all know that traps and snares are a cruel way to kill wildlife. Often the wrong animals get caught - we hear how gorillas in the wild sometimes are missing a hand because they got caught in a snare intended for an antelope.
Often the very poachers who laid the snares fail to return to the scene quickly enough, and so the animal suffers a slow, solitary and painful death. And by the time the poacher gets there, the meat is no good anyway. So a total waste of a life.
In this case the elephant was caught by what we call a “jaw trap”.
The “jaw trap” is the one on the left - in several sizes. Here there is also other equipment and traps we have collected in the park recently - 49 metal necklaces for snaring antelope and waterbuck (far right), machetes to cut wood, hoes to cultivate illegally.
The elephant was caught in one of these “jaw traps”. The trap is opened and when the animal walks in the center the metal jaws slam shut. The trap itself is usually tied to a tree so that the animal cannot get away, even if it were able to move with a heavy metal object attached to its wounded leg.
If you look back at the photo you can actually see that the elephant’s leg was almost cut in two with the “jaw trap”. And that is certainly where decomposition started first.
The actual foot of the elephant is separated from the rest of the leg. You can also see the maggots.
This was a very sad day for all of us. The elephant could have taken up to 2 weeks to die.
When the Rangers first saw the dead elephant, there were many other elephants standing around the body. It was only when the decomposition started that the elephants left. They had finished mourning. And the Rangers were able to approach.
Then we took out the ivory tusks, and brought them to the station. We do not want poachers to get them.
The tusks will be kept by ICCN and used as evidence if and when we find the culprits.
We are still in mourning.
Atamato
This is a new technique used by poachers that we have just come across in Ishango.
It doesn’t look as harmful as it can be The poachers lay this on the ground over a hole that they have dug. They also lay a metal ring (like the snares I have shown you before) round the hole at the centre of the star. All this is left on paths used by animals like antelope.
When the animal walks on the trap, its leg goes into the hole and is caught by this trap above and the snare. The snare catches the animal round the lower leg (because of the hole), as opposed to the hoof, thus making it more effective, for the poachers, because the animal cannot get away.
We collected this trap recently on patrol. A patrol done with your donations. I know it is usually used near Kasindi, near the Ugandan border. I do not know if it is a Ugandan technique, but it is the first time we have found it in the park. This kind of trap can catch not just antelope but also waterbuck and buffalo.
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