African Parks, ICCN Respond to Elephant Slaughter in Garamba National Park, DRC

Courtesy of Cynthia Walley, African Parks

African Parks and ICCN (The Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation) have intensified anti-poaching efforts in eastern DRC to counter the elephant massacre that has beset Garamba National Park.

A total of 68 elephants have been slaughtered since mid-April, representing about four percent of the total population.

In mid-May, African Parks reported that 33 elephants had been killed in the five weeks prior, indicating a concerted attack on the park’s elephant population. Despite intensified anti-poaching efforts since then, the total has risen to 68 elephants in the past two months, at least nine of them shot from a helicopter.

On one occasion hand grenades were used against the Park’s rangers by Sudanese poachers. For the first time the brains of elephants have also been removed, together with tusks and genitals.

African Parks’ investigations have revealed that the poaching is emanating from four different sources: Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) insurgents, armed groups from South Sudan, poachers operating from a helicopter, and renegade members of the Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC). In the past few weeks Garamba’s anti-poaching teams have exchanged fire with several of these groups and five poachers have been killed. “The situation is extremely serious,” said Garamba park manager Jean-Marc Froment.

“The Park is under attack on all fronts.”

Froment said that much of the poaching was being conducted by a new wave of LRA insurgents emanating from the thickly-forested Azande Domaine de Chasse (hunting zone) to the west of the park. Unlike previous encounters with the LRA, in which their weapons were old and ammunition limited, these groups have brand new weapons and ample supplies of ammunition.

The second threat comes from South Sudanese poachers, some of them wearing military uniforms, entering the Park from the north-east.

“In one encounter, hand grenades were used against our anti-poaching team in an exchange of fire that last 45 minutes.”

The third threat is from poachers using an unidentified helicopter. Nine of the recently poached elephants had bullet wounds to the top of their heads and back and had been shot with military precision. In two recent attacks by helicopter, the tusks were removed with chainsaws and the brains and genitals were also targeted. These attacks are similar to a military-style helicopter attack two years ago that left 23 elephants dead in Garamba.

The escalated counter-poaching measures being rolled out by African Parks and ICCN include:

• Collaboration with the regional military task force, which is being supported by AFRICOM (The United States Africa Command).
• The establishment of forward operating bases at strategic points in the park and the manning of choke points to close down known poaching access routes.
• The immediate construction of new roads, bridges and pontoon crossings across the park in order to facilitate the broader deployment of anti-poaching teams.
• The extension of the park’s airstrip network and the intensification of aerial surveillance by the park’s two aircraft.
• Bullet-proof reinforcement of trucks used to transport the anti-poaching teams as well as the park’s aircraft.
• The extension of the current limited communications network throughout the park.

In addition, a helicopter is being urgently sought for the rapid deployment of anti-poaching units in and around Garamba National Park.

Last year, in anticipation of an escalation in poaching, African Parks invested heavily in anti-poaching equipment, communications systems, training and informer networks at Garamba, as well as training a specialised Rapid Response Unit to respond swiftly to severe poaching threats. “The current poaching crisis at Garamba, involving the use of heavy weapons and hand grenades against the park’s anti-poaching teams, now necessitates an even more intensive anti-poaching effort,” said African Parks CEO Peter Fearnhead.

“This surge of poaching is unparalleled in the eight years that we have managed Garamba alongside ICCN,” said Fearnhead.

“Garamba contains the largest remaining elephant population across this entire region of Africa and has therefore become a major poaching target. We do not underestimate the danger facing our rangers on the ground, but we are also determined to take whatever measure we need to protect our elephants.”

African Parks has managed Garamba in partnership with the DRC’s national park authority, ICCN, since 2005.

About African Parks: African Parks is a non-profit organisation that takes on total responsibility for the rehabilitation and long-term management of national parks in partnership with governments and local communities. African Parks operates seven national parks in six countries: the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Chad, Zambia and Malawi. Please see african-parks.org and facebook.com/AfricanParks

About ICCN: The ICCN (The Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation) is the Government authority responsible for the protected areas in the DRC. This includes national parks, forest reserves and designated hunting domains. Their mandate is to control and patrol these protected areas, collect and analyse field data and where possible facilitate tourism activities.

About Garamba National Park: Garamba National Park is situated in the north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo bordering South Sudan. It was established in 1938 and became one of the first national parks in Africa. The total area of the Garamba complex, including the surrounding domaines de chasse (hunting zones) is 12,427 km2 of which 4,900km2 is the park itself. Its vegetation consists of vast undulating grasslands and extensive sections of forest, which is home to a large population of elephants that are a hybrid between savanna and forest elephant. The park contains the last remaining population of Kordofan giraffe in DRC and was the last recorded refuge for the northern white rhino, now considered extinct in the wild. Garamba was proclaimed a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980.

About the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army): The LRA is a militant Ugandan rebel group that originally operated in Uganda and South Sudan, and has been operational in the DRC since about 2006. Led by Joseph Kony, the LRA is responsible for widespread human rights abuses including murder, rape and the abduction of children to become sex slaves and child soldiers. Garamba has long been a stronghold of the LRA in DRC, whose insurgents have been almost permanently resident in the park and the adjoining Azande Domaine de Chasse (hunting zone) for the past eight years. In 2009, an LRA attack on Garamba’s park headquarters, left 15 park employees and family members dead and destroyed $1 million worth of infrastructure. Over the past two years, the LRA has increasingly become involved in elephant poaching to fund its operations, trading tusks for food, weapons, ammunition and other supplies.

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