Elie Mundima

Category: Meeting Elie... | Date: Feb 07 2007 | By: admin

Dear Friends…

My name is Elie Mundima Nkuba and I am the Commander of the Advance Force of the Rangers in Virunga National Park, in the east of Democratic Republic of Congo. I am 41 years old and I have been a Ranger for over 17 years. I have received quite a lot of training over the years, including as an alpine mountain guide and in Wildife Management. I am married with 7 children, and we all live in Mutsora, a village just inside the park.

Over the years I have worked all over the park, which is actually Africa’s oldest national park, established in 1925. I have worked directly to protect the Mountain Gorillas in the Mikeno sector, which borders Rwanda and Uganda. I have also been involved in anti-poaching patrols in Garamba in the north to protect the park from Sudanese groups who enter the park to hunt.

Our greatest challenge is protecting the Mountain Gorillas and other wildlife in the park. Many of our rangers have died protecting Mountain Gorillas from land invasions, poachers and rebels – nearly 100 in the last 10 years - but so far we have been fairly successful. The population of Gorillas actually has increased by about 14% during the terrible civil war that has affected our country since 1996. The war is officially over, but the weapons, and the militias, are still around. We’re short of support. We rarely get our salaries from the government (and subsequently we are helped by donations from abroad) and we struggle to provide rations and equipment for patrols.

Part of the reason is that we are so isolated, which is why I am so grateful for this blog and your support.

This blog will be a diary of our efforts to protect the Mountain Gorillas of Virunga and other wildlife in the park. My wish is that this blog might inspire others, wherever they are in the world, to join in our struggle to protect our Mountain Gorillas who are now on the edge of extinction.

I am also eager to know more about you all. This is a very new experience for me, and I must say I am very much looking forward to it.

My very very best from Virunga National Park,

Elie Mundima