After a Long Pause

This blog was silent too long – BUT not because there is no news in and around the Lomami National Park!  

Here are a few of the big events since September:

Ranger’s band came singing to Opala for the surrender.  The white head bands denote surrender. 

White headbands and singing.

Ranger himself came later on a motorbike.

EVENT 1:   RANGER, major elephant poacher, has surrendered.  He, more than any other, was a continual threat to Lomami elephants from the beginning of this project.  This is the second large surrender and amnesty for elephant poachers.   Twenty-four ex-poachers handed in their arms in September 2020.  Five military rifles and three shotguns as well as spears and poisoned arrows were collected.   Ranger has now left the buffer zone and moved to Kisangani.

As part of the surrender, after arms were turned in, Ranger and each of the other ex-poachers, signed an agreement to no longer participate in any way in any elephant poaching :

Ranger signs a final renunciation
Ranger signs renunciation of elephant poaching.

I never saw Ranger smile until, among the photos from the surrender, is a series showing our TL2 agent, Maurice, horsing around with Ranger.  They have a special ethnic connection that makes them “noko” …or uncles:

1_Maurice_TL2_jokes with Ranger
3_continued
4_continued

The public presentation of the surrendered poachers happened at the central plaza in Opala and opened with the national anthem.  Note Ranger, not singing, inscrutable as usual in the back row:

All sing the national anthem, but not Ranger in shirt with striped sleeves.

And he remained straight faced through his presentation by the territorial administrator:

Ranger, reformed poacher, presented to the population of Opala.

Kipeleka, a pygmy, was one of the other major poachers who surrendered along with Ranger.  He is local (Ranger is not) and was warmly received by the audience:

Kipeleka and wife presented to enthusiastic population of Opala.

EVENT 2 :  BERNARD,  a ruthless criminal among the Balanga, has been captured by an army hit-squad and transferred to Kinshasa where he is undergoing interrogation.  Meanwhile on the ground three of his gang’s army rifles have been seized by the armed forces and his gang is being pursued.   Villagers now have the courage to come forward with accounts of Bernard’s atrocities.  It was not 8 rapes as we had previously determined, but at least 125 rapes (reported to the local NGO, AIDER).  Not one live burial but at least two live burials, one of which was recorded on telephone video. And at least one case of vengeance killing and dismemberment along with multiple cases of torture and robbery.  Bernard himself is under 25 years of age.  Hard to fathom, but we and the villages thank the army. Whole villages had fled and two of our patrol posts had been destroyed and patrols in part of the park suspended the first 6 months of 2020.  

Oct 2019 Victim of Bernard in local dispensary:

Kelisse, a victim of Bernard in Dingi dispensary
Kelisse in Dingi dispensary.

Kelisse was whipped and tortured by Bernard and his band.  Kelisse’s mother in law and his wife were raped; his wife lost her pregnancy in consequence.  What was Kelisse’s sin in Bernard’s estimation?  He refused to pay a fine that Bernard demanded because, supposedly, Kelisse admitted he was glad the military were pursuing Bernard. 

Bernard captured and tortured three different delegations that the local government sent to negotiate his surrender.  When he did surrender it was more a show of force.  He released the government delegations, turned in a few weapons, and brought an army of men and boys to show his strength in February 2020:

The person in the tall genet skin head dress is Osseon, also being pursued for crimes against humanity. Bernard is the second to speak.

Bernard was finally captured in October 2020.

Bernard captured and in Kindu
Bernard in Kindu after capture

One military was shot and killed by Bernard’s brother during the capture.  

Bernard_climbing in airplane
Bernard boarding plane for Kinshasa

Bernard was sent to Kinshasa where he is currently being questioned.  The military colonel who is his body guard was also responsible for his capture.

EVENT 3:  As to our own activities: John is pushing ahead with the 4-year elephant census.  It has been partially completed, but his dugout and the patrollers were met with gunfire, not once, but 6 times in 2020.  The attackers are the Mai-Mai militia who refused to surrender in MitukuThoms’s gang is among them.  The military are now conducting a sweep.

A "combat patrol" doing a sweep of the park because of MaiMai presence
Military leave for security sweep along the Lomami.

A military sweep in the northern park means using the Lomami. There are no roads in or near the park and the Mai-Mai are using the park as refuge.  This is a sweep through wilderness, not something the military do very often.

map showing where patrols met gunfire in 2020
Map of northern Lomami National Park showing 2020 security problems.

The map above shows attacks during 2020 of militia elements fleeing increased law and order of the buffer zone.  The difficulty in accessibility of the north is clear.  It is critical that the sweeps continue to maintain the safety of the elephants.  Elephant poaching, unlike small mammal poaching, requires a high level of organization and a greater support chain.  The goal of the park patrols is to assure that elephant poachers feel the law on their backs such that they have no time to organize.

Below is a camera trap video that catches the reality of the small groups that associate in the north forming a population of over 750 elephants (assessment of 2016):

Near Losekola camp in the northern Lomami National Park.

EVENT 4:  In Kinshasa we are making progress towards taking a more direct role in management for the Lomami National Park.  This means the ability to train guards and in general a more coordinated FZS- ICCN effort to protect the park thoroughly and to international standards.   .

the proect meets with ICCN to iron out details
Working in Kinshasa, November 2020, to harmonize a near-final draft of the contract.

Hard to find an inspiring picture to put here – because the activities involved are meetings, business dinners, trans-continental zooms. Maybe soon there will be a photo of final signature or of us raising our glasses afterwards.

I will put out more posts in December.  Thank you for checking in on progress.  Although I have been back in Congo for more than a month now, the backlog continues to make itself felt.  More soon.

Leaving during Lock-down

Kinshasa

Back in Kinshasa at least 50% of people wear masks, but the best service the masks render is to catch sweat coming off the chin.  The freedom of mouth and nose are unimpaired.

I was in Kindu, in the interior of DR Congo, the province of Maniema.  When I said I needed to travel despite the lock-down – There was a way.  Leon Salumu slipped into his “make things happen” mode.  I could fly as “cargo”.

He got me the papers at DGM in Kindu (an agency that controls immigration …internal and external).  It was a family emergency: Daughter pregnant, 3 weeks from delivery of first child, and her partner just diagnosed with 4th stage cancer.  But all DGM needed to know was “sickness in the family”.

As to Covid-19 in Congo, I had been up-country in Kindu since March and so far there were no known cases in Kindu; out in the villages there was a very vague idea of what Covid-19 might be.  Is it Ebola?  

Looking at the whole of DR Congo, the country has reacted correctly – so far.  Despite the first case detected early in March, on August 7th, in the whole country only 218 deaths are recorded.  Of the 9,355 known cases, 7,734 are in Kinshasa.  But it is spreading. There may still be an approaching crisis as the country will soon open up.

I am now in Kinshasa; I came as “cargo”:  Thank you Leon!

waiting at the airport

Saying good-bye to Leon in Kindu. I too, have pulled my mask below my chin!

cargo on the tarmac

Getting on the GomAir Congo Flight.

The plane started in the wrong direction – east to Goma to get more cargo.

I thought I would get off the plane – GomAir crew said “no”; I was legal in Kindu, but they did not want problems in Goma.  And the stevedores told me and my fellow cargo passenger to get way in the back while they loaded on three cars …

loading underway

First car and filling in with cargo.

full cargo

And then more and more cargo

The stevedores said I could hop into the vehicle for a more comfortable ride, but I preferred staying in reach of the back door. I found myself a comfortable seat for the 3 1/2 hour ride on a collapsed trunk.

IF there was a lavatory it was way up front.  I boarded at 11:30 AM, got off the plane at 7:30 PM and managed to find a bathroom in the abandoned Kinshasa airport. Then I waited, perched on the curb in an empty parking lot, reading my kindle as Matthieu, who came to meet me, advanced meter by meter through gridlock traffic.  

Welcome back to Kinshasa!  It was more than four months since I saw the Kinshasa staff.

I received a delorme (satellite) message from John who is moving down the Lomami: 

“How pandemic evolving? Unrest USA? You travel in dangerous times my love”

I had a covid-19 test in Kinshasa.  I walked in at 9AM, I was tested at 9:20 and I had my results that afternoon.  No Covid. Negative. 

Official air traffic opens on the 15th of the month, but Air France is running a flight through Kinshasa on the 10th.   It mandates a mask at all times, except when eating.  I’ve bought a face shield too.

We know we are in strange times.  Times when the Mom-Grandma in me pushes me forward, masked and shielded, home to what has become a wound on the earth, the USA.  Times when an old lady like me, 69 this November, must beware of the infectious danger I might pose to a young, immunocompromised, loved-one on chemotherapy.  May our choices be right. May we all heal.

Elephant Poacher Joins our Team

Two major elephant poachers asked to come out of the forest to rejoin society.

Kitona in front of termite mound

Kitona, previously an infamous elephant poacher, on recent trip with TL2 teams into Park.

Once, in 2018, Ranger and Kitona sent an emissary to Bangaliwa “we are ready to talk with the general.” We had no way to handle a major surrender.  Less than a year later, on our return to Opala, we stopped the dugout at a small village Olemandeko, to heat up lunch.   As we beached the dugout, three men with AK47s stepped out of the shadows.  

 “We could have shot you, but we didn’t, we want to turn ourselves in.”

Ranger and Kitona_elephant poachers

Again, it was Ranger (far left) and Kitona (far right, next to me).

We heated up our lunch and moved on.  But knew we had to do something.  Ranger had already spent time in jail for killing elephants; both have been involved in serious elephant slaughter, most recently north of the park in 2015.  Several army officers, who “sponsored” that carnage were convicted, but the poachers went free.  

Unlike the Maimai bands in the buffer zone, these poachers are not involved in crimes against humanity: they don’t torture, rape, pillage and burn – but, they do kill elephants.

If they would truly reform, it would remove an important threat for elephants.   It would also help differentiate between the cruelty of Maimai and the illegal exploitation of poachers.  When Thoms asked Ranger to join his Maimai band, Ranger refused.  Poaching only.

With the help of the parks service, ICCN, and specifically its branch linked to the army, CorPPN, we were able to contact the national ministry of defense and get an official pardon and letter for Ranger’s and Kitona’s reintegration.

not quite at ease

Kitona, in white and black shirt, is still clearly worried at the start of interactions with the army to hand over his weapons.

We started the process.  Alas, Ranger balked, he had already spent two years in prison.  Was this a trap?  Nevertheless, the process went ahead with Kitona and the band of hunters that he brought out of the forest.

the AK 47s turned in

First Kitona handed over two army rifles ;

handing in arms

then each member of his team came forward with their shotgun or poisoned arrows. Some wearing protective “gri-gri” (magical protection).

The steps are shown in this short film:

Now what? Its promising, but the process is not over.  

sign to abandon poaching

Kitona’s poaching band signed individually that each refused all poaching, but they are not yet officially integrated into the park service, ICCN.

John and Kitona_Biondo

Nevertheless, Kitona joined John on his recent monitoring patrols in the northern park.  

A series of short-hand Delorme messages from John:

May 30th PM: Camp at Losekola. No sign of poachers. Kitona: humorist not comedian. Naturalist. Records bats, hyrax on phone at night to share morning. Showed where he saw Lox [elephant] 2018

June 1st AM: Spent night in edo [natural clearing] sector. Lots of Lox [elephant] sign. Lox vocalized during night, Kitona recorded, also crowing paon [Congo peacock] on his phone.

Kitona's "signature" on a tree copy

Kitona points out where he had left his mark on trees in earlier years.

June 1st PM: Back at Losekola for night. Discovered 2 more active edos [natural clearings]. We surveyed 7. Most had Lox. 4 had bonobo sign. 7 cameras set [camera traps]

June 2nd PM: Returned Obenge. 4.5m [4.5 meters long] python drowned in project fishnet this morning. Kitona cleaned and drying skin for us.

python caught in fishnets

Kitona took over the basic python taxidermy.

John’s assessment:  Kitona loves and knows the forest.

Kitona also worked with our camp leader, Bebe Bofenda, tracking a mysterious primate.  

Bebe Bofenda and John Hart near Biondo

Bebe Bofenda, camp leader, takes a selfie with John on recent search for mysterious monkey.

Bebe’s assessment of Kitona: “Kitona is courageous, very social and ready to work hard.  This is our first mission with him.  We need more to really get to know each other, but one thing is clear he wants to join the ICCN guard force.”

Kitona in poachers camp

Kitona with guards in a poachers’ camp that they will burn.

Following a visit by Kitona to Ranger’s forest base, Ranger again sent a letter saying he is ready to come out of the forest and turn in his guns.  Hopefully we can make this happen.  

Ranger's letter restating commitment copy

Ranger, again, writes that he wants to turn in his guns — now, in July 2020.

Like so many major efforts in Conservation, the true consequences and importance of these surrenders will be seen over the next few years.  Success will depend upon integration of the poachers into ICCN. It will also depend on  the poachers’ own capacity and determination to contribute and our quickness to detect problems, and our resolution to make it work.

Kitona and guard in camp

Kitona relaxing with a park guard in camp.

We thank Elephant Crisis Fund and Wildcat Foundation for making Kitona’s peaceful transition possible.

View from Congo : Covid-19 and Violence

Above map shows the rate of geographic spread of Covid-19 in Congo

Covid-19 confinement in the USA was to open cautiously –

but unjustified police brutality, resulting in death of yet another black man, was the rupture through which mass protests poured through city streets of USA.  Violence broke out and escalated in the urban nights. 

As a result, will there be another upsurge in USA covid-19 cases –
remaining mainly urban, disproportionately black?

In Congo there is violence, too; here it started well before confinement-
but it was not city violence as in the States, it was rural violence.

It was not protest violence –

It was gang violence, maimai violence to establish dominance by remote, self-defined elites.
This violence, in the buffer zone of Lomami national park, is psychopathic, superstitious:

A woman was accused by one maimai lord of being a “witch” able to reveal where there were diamonds.  She said she had no such knowledge.  She was stripped and whipped.  She had the strength to continue to cry out that she was falsely accused, she was not a sorcerer. She was buried alive.  All this is captured on telephone video.  Like the brutality against George Floyd, the brutality against Honorine was documented.    Here the criminal was Bernard and his band.

These maimai have beheaded, eviscerated and destroyed whole villages on both sides of the park.  One maimai leader, Fidele was caught, not by military or park guards, but by the villagers themselves.

Congo’s violence has a different social origin and will come to a different social end than the violence in the USA, hopefully both ends will come with fundamental social change.

The virus, Covid-19, too has a different social “position” here.  It is one of several virus killers all on-going. Note: the 11th Congolese ebola epidemic just broke out this week. 

Here, too Covid-19, is a killer and it is on the increase, though more slowly – so far – than in the more powerful, economically dominant countries.

Rate of increase in cases and deaths…on June 2nd there are 72 deaths known to have occured of Covid-19 in DR Congo.

We have not seen the end of Covid-19 here or in the USA.

We cannot be sure where the violence will lead in Congo or the USA, or how history will be written, or what lessons will be learned.  But we will continue to give an occasional view from central DR Congo.