Anthrax outbreak kills hippos in DR Congo’s Virunga National Park
Drought and conflict compound the threat to wildlife in eastern DR Congo.
Vitshumbi, DR Congo – While the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continues to grapple with the deadliest Ebola outbreak in its history, another disease is taking a heavy toll on wildlife in Virunga National Park in the country’s east.
Over the past four weeks, hippopotamus carcasses have been discovered in the Semuliki River, west of Africa’s oldest national park, raising concern among communities living along its banks.
“It was in mid-September that we began to notice the mass deaths of hippos in the Semuliki River. We have started to fear this situation, which is unfolding whilst we are in the midst of the Ebola outbreak,” Michael Kambale, a resident of the Vitshumbi enclave, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) north of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, told Al Jazeera.
Olivier Ndoole Bahemuke, a Congolese environmental activist and head of Alerte Congolaise pour l’environnement et les droits de l’homme, a nonprofit organisation operating in the DRC, said the armed conflict that has persisted in the country for nearly three decades had fuelled poaching and deforestation.