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DRC evicts Ugandans from park
26/03/2006 17:29 - (SA)
Kampala - Democratic Republic of Congo authorities have evicted hundreds of Ugandan herdsmen from a game park in the northeast of the country, said Ugandan officials.
The Virunga National Park is home to about 700 of the world's remaining population of rare mountain gorillas
The government-owned newspaper, The Sunday Vision, said in its early edition on Saturday night that more than 640 people, mostly women and children, had crossed the Congo border in the past few days with more than 10 000 head of cattle.
They had been being evicted from Virunga after a 30-day ultimatum given to them by the Congolese authorities.
Years of civil war in the Congo have led to the pillaging of Virunga, Africa's oldest animal conservation zone which was established in 1925 and classified as a World Heritage site in 1979.
Apart from harbouring some of the endangered mountain gorillas, the park, which is also one of the world's largest at 7 800km², has active volcanoes.
Ugandans stranded at village
It also is home to savanna and forest elephants, chimpanzees, okapi and buffaloes.
The Ugandan minister for disaster preparedness, Christine Amongin Aporu, told dpa that Congolese authorities had not notified their counterparts in Kampala about their intention to dislodge the Ugandans from the park.
The Ugandans were now said to be stranded at a border village.
"I have heard about those displaced people from the resident district commissioner. The DRC government did not inform us.
"The Ugandan government is yet to learn why these people were deported.
Camped in congested conditions
"I will visit the area next week to assess the situation. They need mainly food, shelter and medicine," she said.
According to the Sunday Vision, the deportees left their husbands behind and camped in congested conditions at Mpondwe frontier, about 350km west of Kampala.
The newspaper reported that the DRC government accused the herdsmen of encroaching on Virunga, which is part of a forested mountainous enclave stretching into Rwanda and Uganda. - Sapa-dpa
- SAPA
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