March 1, 2008. A Peace Conference is
underway in Goma. For the latest updates visit the
UN website at
www.monuc.org. The area has been experiencing heavy fighting between the DRC army and rebel
forces of general Nkunda north of the city of Goma, in
North Kivu continues. MONUC reports that general
Nkunda plans to attend the Peace Conference. Heavy shelling and gunfire
has been
taking place in the immediate vicinity of the heart of
the gorilla sector in the Virunga National Park and
World Heritage site.
WildlifeDirect
posts almost daily reports on what is
happening in the area on a special blog.
The renewed fighting poses a serious threat to the
survival of the mountain gorillas, flagship species of
this World Heritage site, of which only an estimated 700
remain in the wild. Since the summer of 2007, 10
gorillas have been killed in Virunga and two more are
missing. For more than 4 months now, park authorities
are unable to enter the gorilla sector and ensure
protection and monitoring of the gorilla families.
The current fighting has also added to the human suffering of local communities around the World Heritage site and the humanitarian crisis is starting to take on catastrophic proportions. Already an estimated 425,000 people have been displaced by the fighting, including 70 park ranger staff. As a result of the conflict, a number of makeshift camps of displaced people has sprung up right next to the park, adding further pressure on its natural resources due to people desperately looking for food, firewood and building materials for temporary shelter.
The renewed degradation of the security situation and continued threats to the five DRC World Heritage sites motivated the World Heritage Committee to request the Director General of UNESCO and the Chairperson of the Committee to organize a high-level meeting with the DRC authorities to address the urgent threats to the sites. Currently, the Centre is in contact with the Office of the President to organize this meeting. The Committee also decided to apply the new reinforced monitoring mechanism to all five DRC sites. In August, a UNESCO/IUCN mission visited the site to investigate the January and June gorilla killings.
The World Heritage Centre
continues to monitor the situation closely and is in
contact with the protected area authority and its
conservation partners as well as MONUC to get up too
date information on developments. However, there is
little that can be done to safeguard the gorillas and
secure the management of the site as long as the
fighting continues.
Why is the Democratic Republic of the Congo
important to the United States?
More
Watch the War Against the
Women in Congo from the Award Winning US Television
Program
60 Minutes from January 13, 2008.