Oct 11 2007
Fighting ongoing in Gorilla Sector; Ranger dies in car accident
There is fighting going on near Bukima between the rebels and the army as I write. My Rangers at Rumangabo can hear the exchange of heavy gunfire. This started yesterday afternoon. Apparently the rebels are losing - that is what I read and what I hear, but who knows. I am just leaving Goma and driving up there now.
One of our Rangers has also died in a car accident. He was coming back from Rubare, on the main road north of Rumangabo, and fell out of the pick-up. He was taken to hospital but died from brain damage. He was coming back with other Rangers from an anti-charcoal burning patrol. We will pay his widow a monthly stipend of $30 out of the donations made on this blog.
The Ranger was on patrol to stop a truck just like this one full of charcoal from the park
I am also coordinating the distribution of rations and essential non-food items to the Rangers who evacuated the Gorilla Sector and are at Rumangabo. There are 34 in total. This will come of out of the crisis cell money that many conservation NGOs have contributed to: FZS, WildlifeDirect, DFGF(I), WWF, IGCP and ZSL. Up until now we were using rations that had been bought for patrols, that we were not able to do because of the fighting.
Thank you for your words of support and encouragement.
Director Norbert Mushenzi
Technorati : accident, congo, drc, iccn, wildlifedirect
Daily news from the conservation frontline by Innocent and Diddy, and other Congolese rangers risking their lives to save mountain gorillas of the Virunga National Park in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
Condolences to the rangers family - yet another ranger dies in the course of duty.
BBC reporting Nkunda ready to integrate with army as of Wed morning - but I shan’t hold my breath.
Take care everyone.
Love and Condolences go to the rangers family. It does make you realise, just how much they put on the line, even now when they can’t watch out for the Gorillas. Stay safe. Lets hope fighting does stop soon
So sorry to hear about the ranger I hope his family will be ok….thanks again for the updates…poor gorillas I am sure they are sick of hearing the gunshots etc…must be so frightened……these mess needs to end…..
Director Mushenzi, I’m so sorry to hear about the ranger who died. Please give my sympathies to his family. I remain impressed at the level of dedication the rangers, and their families, have for the protection of the park and its wildlife.
BBC News reports this morning that Nkunda wants a cease fire: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7039142.stm
AllAfrica reports ongoing skirmishes. The BBC News story is good because it’s the freshest and it has a handy list of all the groups fighting in the area.
s.
Hi everyone, I’m so sorry to hear about the ranger, my condolonces go out to his family. I’ve been checking news sites this morning, Your right Sheryl the BBC one is a good report, its still pretty hard to find though isn’t it, they never seem to make front page. Here is another link http://www.monuc.org/news.aspx?newsID=15687 from around 10.00am this morning. There are few updates on here.
Take care.
Condolences for the loss of your colleague and to his family. Great thanks for explaining us how you all still try to do as much as you can to protect the park from being damaged, even if you cannot assess the gorilla’s situationi directly. I’ve come across three projects since this summer where the devotion to the work in order to save environment or deal with social problems that was truly inspiring. To me it’s clear that your work is not just work, but like a calling that you all are proud to be part of. I have the impression that you all feel you are working for the greater good. And that it is because identifying yourself with that goal - protecting the park and saving the gorillas - is what makes you go on and keep on finding ways to do it, even at the most difficult of circumstances. When I first came across the events of the summer and the recent news I felt desperate, but that has changed. Your hope has come across to me. Your whole team and their families are heroes for every task they do that involves this work. And so was the ranger that died.
Much strength, more help and attention, as well as a change of circumstances for you all.
I believe the political pressure is helping — I believe that soon the rebels will see that they cannot suffer many more losses — sad but it had to come to this — someone has to surrender — I hope,I pray they do and you rangers can get on with your devotion to the park and its wonderful wildlife that we all support and love! I am sorry for your loss and I am very glad his family will receive a monthly stipend to help her.
Hi guys. Diddy just phoned me. He has just attended the funeral of the Ranger at Rumangabo. The Ranger was called Salva Gasusa. He leaves behind a wife and 3 children.
My condolences to the family of the Ranger Salva Gasusa. Thank you for providing support to his family. That charcoal truck in the picture is massive. It is clear that Ranger Salva was doing a very important job. Lisa, California
AFP reports renewed fighting about 30 kilometers from Goma: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hyzRREOET-BPF83Oad6YOlWTDNEw
I have no idea how 30 kilometers translates to miles, though. Seems Nkunda’s appeal for a cease fire was either false or ignored by the FARDC. Both sides claim the other started the shooting.
s.
Je vous présente toutes mes condolations cordiales à vous et à la famille de Ranger Salva Gasusa. Avec mon plus grande MERCI pour tout votre travail courageux, B.
My deepest sympathy and condolences to Ranger Salva Gasusa’s family. i pray that the war ends soon and a peaceful, lasting solution will be found to this horrible conflict.
Heartfelt condolences to Ranger Salva Gasusa’s family. I have only just stumbled across this site, and am horrified by what I am reading - why is this not hitting the news? I had the privilege of seeing the gorillas first hand last year in Rwanda, and have nothing but complete admiration for those who are risking their lives to protect these magnificent creatures. I had been heartened to hear of the progressions made with the gorilla population, but you only hear about the peaceful times. I was completely unaware of what is really happening. I am now hooked on this website, encouraging others to log on and see what is really happening. Thank you so much to Innocent and all of the team out there - lets just hope they can get back to their posts soon, without having to risk their lives. My thoughts are with you all.
Very sorry to hear about that ranger that dies doing his work; All of you have the most dangerous job! I hope that this conflict ends in the next weeks and that the rangers will be allowed again to track and care our gorillas.
Over in Dr. Leakey’s blog is a new post about an Oxfam International report titled, “Africa’s Missing Billions.” You can read the Oxfam press release and find a link to the actual report here: http://www.oxfam.org/en/news/2007/pr071011_control_arms_cost_conflict_africa
If you’re not already reading Dr. Leakey’s blog, you should check it out.
s.
Hi Debbie, I was as shocked as you a couple of months ago, I stumbled across this site after hearing about the execution of the five gorillas I spent an entire afternoon at work googling the internet to try and find things. The BBC does give good reports but you have to actualy go into the science/nature section and type in the search to find things. If you type DR Congo Gorillas into the search engine you will find lots of links to news reports but, its very true if your just generally browsing it is very hard to just stumble upon this news. So generally I feel the majority of people have no idea what is going on. I’ve posted this site link on my profile page on Facebook so anyone looking at my page can see this, Jo.
HEY, MY FRIENDS!!
If you want to help FREE in the conservation of Mexican forests and in feeding orphaned chimps from the Jane Goodall Institute just visit http://www.redjellyfish.com/wildlifeconservation.html. I have been doing personals donations in this site since some years ago, but there is also a clicking sistem that allow you to contribute to this noble efforts without any cost!! These poor chimps are orphaned due to poaching and habitat lose, and they also need our help. Please help them!!
you may click every two hours daily, and not just once a day like is indicated in the internet site. Thank you in advance to you all!
Samantha.- Is Wildlife Direct able to be included in the redjellyfish system of clicking to collect money for the gorilla´s conservation, or to implement such a system in your site or enywhere else in the internet to collect funds??? It could be just great for the Virunga conservation efforts!
Sorry to hear of the ranger losing his life. I hope for some good news to come someday soon from this blog. Sheryl 30 kilometers = 18.6411358 miles. All you have to do is type 30 kilometers into Google (searchkindly) and it calculates it for you.
Thanks, Gary. Mostly I’m a stubborn American who thinks the metric system is incomprehensible and refuses to learn it.
s.
Deepest sympathies to Ranger Gasusa’s family. It is tragic.
[…] continues to post regular updates about developments there, including the passing away of one of its rangers. Not to leave in you on a sad note, but from the same blog is a picture of a baby gorilla named […]
Hello everyone. This is Rick in El Paso, Texas. I think we need to start talking about how we can all work together on a plan to more effectively help the park and its staff. I believe most posts are coming from the US and Europe and I see names in this part of WildlifeDirect almost daily. I have been in touch with a number of people at WildlifeDirect and they are aware of who I am and how I am trying to help. If you agree to working together in a more organized way then send me an email and we can start sharing ideas by email. I think emails, where all participants who sign up are copied at the same time, will work best rather than posting every idea on this blog. Once we agree to a plan we can then post it here. I will be willing to moderate the discussion. Send me an email at rickllobello@cs.com and we can go from there. I will start the first line of discussion with all who contact me a week from today on October 18. You can see what I am trying to do now on my website at iloveparks.com. I plan to meet as many people who will listen to me in Washington DC the week of October 29 and welcome others who want to join me.
Rick LoBello, 915-474-1456
Thank you Rick and all of you for the effort you are making. It is tremendous. And F J Pechir I will look into the redjellyfish system. I had never heard of it before.
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Director Mushenzi, my deepest sympathy and condolances to Salva Gasusa’s family and of course to all of his colleagues as well. Sad news indeed this week, but yet another example of the unbelievable courage and dedication of your rangers.
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My deepest sumpathy and condolences to the family of Ranger Salva Gasusa. Such tragic news - may he rest in peace. Please stay safe all the rest of his colleagues.
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[…] I am sorry this is not a happy post, but I would like to write today to honor Ranger Gasusa who died on the 11th of October, during an unfortunate car accident. […]