Park ranger killed

A Rwandan park ranger was killed when he and other mountain gorilla trackers were ambushed by Hutu rebels, the German Press Agency (dpa) quoted military sources in northern Ruhengeri as saying on Wednesday. Matthias Mpiranya, a park ranger with the Karisoke Research Centre, was on his routine rounds of tracking the gorillas when he died on Monday in an exchange of gunfire with hiding rebels, dpa said. “The incident took place on the slopes of the Kalisimbi volcano near the border with the DRC,” it quoted officials at the Karisoke centre as saying.

“He and other rangers were tracking down the Pablo group, which is in the remote part of the Virunga park near DRC,” they added. Mpiranya was buried on Tuesday in Ruhengeri. In June Hutu rebels who had launched an offensive on northwest Rwanda from bases in Congo killed and ate two silver-back gorillas in Virunga park. Another gorilla died in July when it was caught in a cross fire between the Hutu rebels and troops of the Goma-based Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma). The incident also took place in Virunga park but on the Congolese side.