The Gorilla War

Gorilla poaching is rampant in the Congo Basin and weak local governments are admittedly powerless to stop it. In Cameroon a forest ranger was killed and another seriously wounded in a violent clash with poachers outside Lobeke National Park near the border with the Central African Republic. The ranger, Zomedei Pierre Achille, was killed September 27th. He and his partner were on patrol when they discovered two western lowland gorilla carcasses in a poacher's camp. They concealed themselves to wait for the poachers to return. Six poachers open fired on the two unarmed rangers when they were spotted. His stripped body was found later tied to a tree and showed evidence that he did not die immediately. A WWF spokesman said poachers are waging a war for control of Cameroon's forests. Achille left behind a family of five children.

Poachers not only hunt for gorilla body parts, but also to capture baby gorillas. An infant can fetch as much as £25,000 on the black market. In April and June, lowland babies were rescued from poachers in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. In August, a mountain infant was rescued when poachers attempted to smuggle the baby into Rwanda.{"Gorillas"}. The most recent rescue [photo] was the result of a sting operation near the western boarder of Virunga National Park. Poachers agreed to sell an eighteen month old Grauer's (lowland) gorilla to rangers in civilian clothes. Christian Shamavu, who led the operation, said it was likely the infant's family had been killed. Often the captured infants are injured or sick from contact with human captors carrying communicable diseases. They are usually extremely stressed. The rescued infant called Shamavu for the ranger who saved him is doing well after veterinarian care and feeding. Most likely he will be sent to the GRACE Center, a gorilla orphan sanctuary in eastern DRC.