of its ~2000 residents. Those killed were garde de parc: Atikpo
Mutombi; 39 yrs old, father of 5; and his porter: Bakobana Makupuno
"Dieudonne" or "Jean", 24 yrs old - a young man, without a wife or
kids. This is the 4th park guard to be lost this year, while 6 have
been lost in the last 2 years - including a brother of a WCS employee.
All of this risk taken as they take upon their duties to protect
wildlife and provide for their families with their meager salary of
$50 a month. That's $1.50 a day or half what I pay my
cuisinier/domestique. Also, ICCN aren't like most government
officials here who are caught up in illicit activities to supplement
their wallet...
The story I've been told is the guards had a firefight with poachers
very deep in the forest - some 26 km north of the main road, and west
of Epulu by 30-40km. These men were killed on Tuesday evening, and one
other was injured....three hunters were killed, and were buried out
there. They were apparently part of a team run by one famous poacher,
whose teams are responsible for several killings of park guards and
elephants for their tusks. This man was apparently in the forest this
time, but not killed....he usually moves freely around some big towns
, but governance structures here are too weak to do anything to him.
His picture is on "wanted" posters, but what is the reward for messing
with this dangerous man and his team? Nothing? Having to move?
Threats from his team or associates? I wish the ignorant wretch who
buys their beautiful ivory - and drives the market!!! - could have
been at the funeral today to see what their actions cause...
Literally all of the ~80 ICCN park guards left Wednesday morning to
retrieve the bodies. Still after dark on Thursday, they had not
returned, and they sent a third team to reinforce them to help them
haul the bodies the last few hours. So Friday morning, we knew they'd
return, and they had set up a funeral for the return. The chorus of
mourning when the guards arrived was really moving. It'll continue
for a while...people here can't forget, but they can only go on.
1 comment:
how frustrating/sad! thank you for sharing.
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