\n At least 18 people, including 12 rangers were killed on Friday in an attack in Virunga National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site in the restive east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a park spokesman said.\n<\/p>\n
\n It was one of the deadliest attacks in the park, Africa's oldest and most biologically diverse protected area.\n<\/p>\n
\n Besides the six park rangers, two drivers and four other civilians were killed in the attack in Goma, for which no person or group has claimed responsibility, a spokesman for the national park told AFP.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Others were injured, including some who are fighting for their lives,\" the park management said in a statement.\n<\/p>\n
\n It added that civilians were the apparent target of the attack.\n<\/p>\n
\n The guards were killed \"while coming to help a civilian vehicle which had come under fire by the assailants,\" the statement said.\n<\/p>\n
\n A security source spoke of a death toll of 13 rangers and five civilians.\n<\/p>\n
\n Virunga is a UNESCO-listed site which is spread over 7,800 square kilometres (3,000 square miles) over the borders of DR Congo, Rwanda and Uganda.\n<\/p>\n
\n It is home to a world-famous population of mountain gorillas but has been hit by rising instability and violence.\n<\/p>\n
\n Inaugurated in 1925, the park has witnessed repeated attacks by rebel groups, militias and poachers.\n<\/p>\n
\n A total of 176 of its rangers have been killed in the last 20 years.\n<\/p>\n
\n Visits to the park have been suspended since March 19 for at least 30 days in DR Congo's bid to halt the new coronavirus pandemic.\n<\/p>\n
\n The park banned visitors between May 2018 to the start of last year after two British tourists were kidnapped there. They were later released but a ranger was killed during the abduction.\n<\/p>\n
\n In another attack, in the northeast Ituri region on on Thursday, seven civilians were killed by militiamen, army spokesman Jules Ngondo told AFP.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The army neutralised ten assailants,\" he added.\n<\/p>\n
\n UN radio station Okapi put Thursday's toll at 13 civilians dead.\n<\/p>\n
\n Both sources blamed that attack on members of CODECO -- whose official name is Cooperative for the Development of Congo -- an armed political-religious sect in Ituri drawn from the Lendu ethnic group.\n<\/p>\n
\n Last month the army announced it had killed COECO head Ngudjolo.\n<\/p>\n
\n Tens of thousands were killed between 1999 and 2003. According to the UN, most victims were targeted because they were Hema.\n<\/p>\n
\n The conflict has reignited in recent years.\n<\/p>\n
\n More than 700 people have been killed in Ituri since late 2017, a UN report said in January, adding that some of deaths might constitute a crime against humanity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At least 18 people, including 12 rangers were killed on Friday in an attack in Virunga National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site in the restive east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a park spokesman said. It was one of the deadliest attacks in the park, Africa's oldest and most biologically diverse protected area. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-44189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n