Regional

Génocidaires, Congolese officials behind Virunga National Park destruction

2023-11-04 05:30:00

Virunga National Park in eastern DRC is one of the most biologically diverse areas on the planet. It is home to the world's critically endangered mountain gorillas, elephants, hippos, unique birds and rare plants.

Africa’s most biodiverse protected area, home to over one thousand species of mammal, bird, reptile, and amphibian as well as a third of the world’s endangered mountain gorillas is a UNESCO world heritage site. Despite being a UNESCO world heritage site, Virunga is constantly threatened by war, poaching and illegal activities as well as unpreventable natural disasters.

Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi claimed, during the October 28 Brazzaville summit on global tropical forest basins that Rwanda planned to destroy Virunga National Park. It was an unsuccessful attempt at diverting attention from the real culprits who are much closer to home.

Tshisekedi is no stranger to blame shifting and accusing the government of neighbouring Rwanda for anything that goes wrong in his country. He has a habit of using distractions in his country to conceal his government's failures, particularly in maintaining law and order in a country perpetually plagued by instability.

When it comes to the destruction of Virunga National Park, the real culprits are the FDLR terrorist militia, a group formed by the remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

For decades, they had exploited the park, and their activities went beyond the eye-catching accusations made by President Tshisekedi.

This destruction is mainly fuelled by FDLR’s charcoal trade. The génocidaires provide 95 per cent of the charcoal used in Goma, a city of over one million people, as revealed in a report by Pole Institute, a non-governmental organization operating in DRC.

The report released in April 2022 indicates that charcoal produced in Virunga National Park makes up the largest portion of FDLR’s source of revenues, potentially generating $11 million.

This charcoal trade benefits a network involving many people, from security forces to truck owners, drivers, and laborers. The DRC government turns a blind eye, effectively contributing to this environmental crisis.

The genocidal outfit supplies Goma and surrounding villages in the Rutshuru, Nyiragongo, and Masisi territories. With the help of the Congolese armed forces, FARDC, the FDLR engages in poaching, selling meat in neighboring villages and in mining activities within the park.

The consequences of these illegal activities are dire. The park's once-thriving mammal populations has dwindled significantly, with the majestic hippopotamus population plummeting from over 70,000 in the 1970s to less than 300.

Tshisekedi ignores all available facts and prefers to blame Rwanda.

In 2007, oil was discovered in Virunga National Park. Corrupt Congolese officials greedily jumped on the occasion and signed a secret deal with a British company, SOCO, to start oil production.

At the time, UNESCO and park management had to step in to prevent this devastation.

Tshisekedi continues to back negative armed groups that fuel the deforestation of Virunga National Park; it is abundantly clear that he, not Rwanda, is the real actor behind the park's tragic demise.

The blame games are just a smokescreen to divert attention from the truth.

Just as like everything else that is going wrong in his country, Tshisekedi failed to protect Africa's oldest national park and he blames Rwanda for it.