Five members from African Parks, including four rangers and the Park Manager, sustained injuries in a shootout with elephant poachers on April 23, 2016 in Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
It is with sincere regret that we announce that three of the Rangers, Dimba Richard, Anigobe Bagare, and Matikuli Tsago have since died. Ranger Kenisa Adrobiago and Park Manager Erik Mararv who both sustained gunshot wounds are now in a stable condition.
Besides Matikuli Tsago whose body was recovered this morning, the other three Rangers and the Park Manager were evacuated by AFRICOM yesterday and flown to a US military base in Nzara, South Sudan. Two of the three Rangers were in critical condition and were stabilised prior to being transferred to a UN military hospital in Bria, Central African Republic (CAR). Tragically however, Anigobe Bagare and Dimba Richard died there today.
“We are devastated by this latest loss. Rangers put their lives on the line each and every day, and are under real siege in Garamba protecting elephants from heavily incentivised and militarised poaching gangs who threaten the very survival of humans and wildlife alike” said Peter Fearnhead, CEO of African Parks. “Our heartfelt condolences are with the surviving family members of the rangers we have lost. We are extremely grateful to the support we have received from AFRICOM who provided for the timely evacuations and for the assistance of SANGARIS in CAR. We are doing everything possible to provide for all these men and their families during this very difficult time.”
African Parks is fortunate to have in place a Personal Accident Policy that in the event of death or an accident, covers that employee and their family members in the amount of six times their annual salary, in addition to any funds raised through campaigns and generous donors.
Elephants numbered around 22 000 in the late 1970s but today, a fraction of their population remains. This is ground zero in the elephant poaching crisis, where elephants are slaughtered for their ivory tusks to be sold illegally by local and regional criminal networks. In 2015, Garamba tragically lost five ICCN guards and three members of the Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC) who were killed by heavily-armed elephant poachers in three separate incidents.
African Parks has been managing Garamba, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, since 2005 in partnership with the Institut Congolais pour La Conservation de la Nature (ICCN), the DRC’s official wildlife authority. The park, which is 4 900km2 and is part of the larger Garamba Complex of 12 500km2, is the last stronghold for elephants and giraffe in all of Congo.