Garamba national park

A area of 12,427 km^{2 in the D}emocratic Republic of Congo.
^{Home to 3000 elephants and the Lord's Resistance Army.}

Garamba

national park

Between 1976 and 1980 Garamba's wildlife came under immense pressure, predominantly from commercial Sudanese poachers. During this period, elephant numbers dropped from an estimated 22,000 to only 5,000 individuals. By 1984 the population of critically endangered northern white rhino had shrunk to only 15 animals. At the time anti-poaching activities were focused on the southern region of the park to protect and attempt to recover the rhino population and by 1991, 30 northern white rhino were known to inhabit the park.

By 2005 financing for Garamba was virtually non-existent. Living conditions for employees and their families were not only difficult, but also dangerous. The supply of basic goods was problematic and necessities such as fuel and spare parts to maintain park vehicles were impossible to find. Much of the infrastructure was in disrepair and roads and airfields were overgrown. As a result the majority of the ranger outposts had long been abandoned. Anti-poaching operations were limited and concentrated on the southern region of the park, yet bushmeat remained freely available in several local villages and towns.

For a long time, research and monitoring in Garamba concentrated mainly on the population dynamics of the northern white rhino and, to a lesser extent, elephant and giraffe. However these operations were halted in February 2005 when the expatriate staff from the previous project left the park. As a result, what was known about the wildlife populations became increasingly outdated.

The Lord's resistance army are likely today hiding deep in Garmaba national park. In many cases the poachers know that park even better than the rangers, which makes them incredibly difficult to track. They bring hostages with them, often only women and children (for sexslaves or/and soldiers) and only stay at the same place for 24 hours. The rebels in many ways live a very primitive life, but we should not overlook that the also have access to advanced technology like GPS and satellite-telephones and sophisticated weaponary.

More recently however, large mammal populations in the northern region of the park have suffered due to both foreign and local poaching activities. Between 1999 and 2002/3, the Orientale Province of the DRC was under enormous pressure from a range of factors including civil war, undisciplined Congolese soldiers and foreign troops, SPLA rebels from Sudan and poachers. Garamba's wildlife suffered enormously and northern white rhino numbers plummeted to only four individuals. To add to Garamba's difficulty, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a Ugandan rebel group in existence since 1986, progressively pushed into Southern Sudan and started using Garamba as a safe haven out of reach of the Ugandan army.

In 2012, 22 elephants were killed at one time by poachers. They were all killed with one or two bullets directly on the top of their heads. This tells us that the shooter must have been fairly experienced and that the attack came from above. Normally elephants scatter at the first shot and when they sense a threat they immediately try to protect the young.

These animals were found in a close circle. The herd must have realised that they had no chance to escape and instead stayed together. The young were lying in the middle and the older were lying around them. (Yes, they even killed the calves, even though they don't have any ivory). Also, there was no tracks or footprints around the site. The Garamba National Park's rangers reported that they had spotted a helicopter just a few minutes earlier flying dangerously low around the park. It was an MI-24 battle helicopter, the same model as the Uganda Goverment troops uses.

When the rangers got to the site the elephant's ivory and genitals were gone.
The tusks were removed with a chainsaw.

Some of the elephant who were shot dead from the helicopter. The poacher even killed the young without tusks.

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