Rwandan Rebels Are Blamed for Killings of Eight People in Congolese Park

Rwandan rebels are suspected of murdering three national park rangers and five soldiers in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the Congolese Wildlife Authority said.

The rangers’ patrol was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade while attempting to secure a safe route through Virunga National Park, the wildlife authority, known by its French acronym ICCN, said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. Three members of the patrol were wounded, it said.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of our colleagues who were killed in their efforts to protect the public from illegal armed groups,” Emmanuel de Merode, director of Virunga, said in the statement.

More than 160 of Congo’s park rangers have been killed in the past decade during a series of conflicts centered in the country’s mineral-rich eastern region, according to ICCN. Virunga is home to gorillas, chimpanzees and elephants. The ICCN blamed the attack on the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, a Rwandan rebel group based in Congo.

“The attack is thought to have been carried out in retaliation for the destruction of two of their camps by park rangers in December,” ICCN said in the statement.

The FDLR have been funding their rebellion through the illegal trade in charcoal from the park, de Merode said in a statement on the ICCN’s website.

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael J. Kavanagh in Kinshasa at mkavanagh9@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.net.

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