A park ranger was killed and two conservation workers were briefly abducted when bandits ambushed a convoy of rangers from the Itombwe reserve in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Anselme Matabaro, an ICCN staff member and deputy chief of the Itombwe reserve was seriously injured in the attack on 5 May in eastern Congo and has since died.

The bandits attacked and abducted the rangers, including representatives from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and World Wildlife Fund, as they travelled from Mwenga in South Kivu. The driver of the convoy was shot in the hand, according to the Congo Basin Forest Partnership. Most of the group were released hours later.

A French national working for WCS was released on 8 May, Cosmo Wilungula, director general of the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature, told Reuters. He said they had demanded $25,000 (£19,300) for the Frenchman.

“We can confirm that on 5 May a group of conservation workers in DRC were the victims of an armed attack. We are only now able to confirm events,” said a spokesperson from WWF.

“Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Mr Matabaro. As investigations are ongoing, the authorities have our full support in their attempts to bring the perpetrators to justice,” they added.

Itombwe reserve is the largest mountainous forest in Africa. It is home to forest elephants, chimpanzees and critically endangered Grauer’s gorilla, the world’s largest great ape. An area of 15,000 sq km became a nature reserve in 2006, in which all human activity was prohibited, but it has been under constant threat of logging, mining and hunting.

Years of conflict in the region have also brought armed groups to the mountains, who live off the illegal exploitation of natural resources – coltan and cassiterite and even diamonds.



Kidnappings by armed rebel groups have increased in recent years. At least 175 people were held for ransom in eastern Congo in 2015, according to Human Rights Watch.



Instability and conflict not only affects the wildlife but those trying to protect it. Conservation areas across the country have been plagued by violence against rangers – two park rangers were killed by poachers in DRC’s Garamba national park just last month.



Across the world on average two to three rangers die each week in the field. More than 1,000 have been killed in the last decade, according to the Thin Green Line Foundation.



“We are becoming accustomed to this sad reality. But we need the world community’s support to help provide training and equipment to prevent deaths and to support families left behind,” Sean Willmore, the foundation’s director, told the Guardian.