Authorities said on Thursday that suspected militiamen killed a technician and three rangers from the famed Virunga national park in the DR Congo’s turbulent east.
Virunga is Africa’s oldest nature reserve, located on the Uganda-Rwanda border, and is internationally known as a sanctuary for rare animals, including mountain gorillas.
The park is also used as a hideout by militias in eastern Congo, of which dozens are active.
According to the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature (iccn), armed men deemed to be “mai-mai” fighters assaulted a “convoy of technicians assigned to development projects” on Thursday morning in north Kivu province’s Lubero region. In the DRC, “mai-mai” is a term used to refer to communal militias.
According to the icon, three park rangers and one technician were killed in the attack, while six others were wounded.
Colonel Alain Kiwewa Mitela, the military administrator in Lubero territory, also said that four people were killed.
He added that the attack occurred near the village of Kivale, which lies outside the borders of Virunga National Park.
