Global News - March 2008
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Senior park official accused of masterminding gorilla killings
Tue 25 March 2008 17:00 UK — Africa,Primates
Reports suggest that a senior national park ranger has been arrested in Congo on suspicion of being involved with the deaths of a number of endangered gorillas.
The Reuters news agency cited local radio station Okapi, which claimed that the senior Congolese Nature Conservation Institute (ICCN) official was arrested last Wednesday (March 19th).
It is believed that he has been accused of arranging the killing of around ten mountain gorillas in the remote Virunga National Park.
The report suggested that the unnamed official has also been implicated in an illegal charcoal burning operation in the national park.
Some have suggested that the gorillas were killed to deter conservationists who were trying to prevent the destruction of the animals' rainforest habitat.
Only around 700 mountain gorillas survive in the wild. They are only found in the Virunga hills where the borders of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda meet.
Last month, the three countries launched a joint ten-year plan to protect the gorillas from poaching and insecurity linked to militia violence in the region.
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