The news earlier this month that the gorilla orphans, Ndeze and Ndakasi, are doing well in Goma were received by many with a sigh of relief among readers of the Gorilla Doctors blog at WildlifeDirect. Many had been asking for weeks how the gorillas were faring following the resurgence of fighting in eastern DRC in August 2008.
The pictures of the gorilla orphans and their minders looking relaxed and smiling even as the rebel forces loyal to renegade DRC general,Laurent Nkunda advanced towards Goma, the capital of Nord Kivu Province, DRC, was indeed a sight for sore eyes and a break from the horrid pictures of dead people and the uncertainty over how gorillas in general were faring in the Virunga.
Virunga National Park is home to some 200 mountain gorillas constituting about one-third of the world population of these majestic primates. Between May and July 2007, a series of gorilla massacres were witnessed inside the park in what is thought to be the darkest time in gorilla conservation history. Ten adult gorillas were killed including one of the most habituated male silverback gorilla, Senkekwe - a 500 pound colossus - and other known gorillas.
Two infant gorillas, Ndeze and Ndakasi, were rescued by rangers and have been housed in Goma since then. Ndeze, Ndakasi and an older gorilla child, Mapendo, have become the iconic, and rather painful, reminders of one of the most brutal non-human murders of all time.
With the upsurge in fighting, their future has been in doubt and the report of their being well and healthy has given most animal lovers a reason to cheer up.
Now, news coming from Goma indicate that about 150 rangers have returned to the Mikeno Gorilla Sector inside the Virunga National Park after heavy fighting kept them away from the Sector for 14 months. This is good news although the fighting has not stopped. The understanding, according to Virunga Park Chief Emmanuel de Merode, is that the rangers are a neutral force and can therefore continue with their work of protecting gorillas and other wildlife in the Virunga without getting involved in the war.
There is currently a jittery lull in the fighting in eastern DRC following Nkunda's declared ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid to reach the more than 250,000 internally displaced persons living in the squalid refugees camps set up around Goma. Nkunda has pulled back his forces from two fronts to facilitate this.
The fighting may indeed continue after a while as Nkunda - who says he's fighting for the freedom of all Congolese people - has vowed take Goma and continue fighting until he has "liberated" all of DRC. What will happen to the gorilla orphans when Nkunda invades Goma is anyone's guess.
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