Ebola virus: an electron micrograph of an ebolavirus virion
I came back from the Lomami National Park a week ago and, checking
the news, found Covid-19 spreading in Kinshasa, but it has not exploded. Here’s the situation.
And there is still no sign of covid-19 in Kindu where I am
now. When John returned to Kisangani
from the northern Lomami NP he reported the same: no sign. We asked in medical centers in Kindu and
Kisangani…no coronavirus patients, although the medical staff are very attentive
for symptoms.
John took pictures of the casket-maker’s wares lined up
along the side of the road for sale:
That business has not yet picked up in Kisangani. John
has his eyes on the “green and yellow casket” which he thinks will be the first
to go.
John is watching for changes in the speed of turnover of Kisangani casket-vendors’ wares.
We of course wonder if this moderate pace will continue
long-term, then maybe dwindle, OR if the incidence graph is about to jump into a
sharp incline and the virus jump, too, from city to city.
For clues we looked at how other virus epidemics were doing in DR Congo, and were shocked at how complacent we have been.
For all three viruses, rapid propagation and virulence
assure tragedy. Containment of the scale of tragedy is a struggle
with poverty, poor infrastructure, and failed health systems.
EBOLA: The current epidemic is Congo’s 10th Ebola
outbreak and started in August 2018. The
virus was first identified in DR Congo near the Ebola river in the northeast in
1976. Even now, with better protocols
for treating patients, the current epidemic has a mortality rate of 66%. Whole families and neighborhoods are lost. New vaccines, while still experimental, were
and are what allow the current epidemic to remain contained (part of eastern DR
Congo only). Finally, we believe, the vaccines may soon allow an end to the
epidemic.
The Kindu bushmeat market at Makengele on 27 March 2020. A bustling place.
Like Covid-19, Ebola is animal vectored. In the case of Ebola probably jumping to humans through hunting and preparation of bushmeat.
Unlike Covid-19, the human to human contagion is through
contact with body fluids – blood, vomit – or clothes and surfaces contaminated by
the fluids. It spares no-one and kills
more than half of those affected.
Hand washing bucket set-up to prevent Covid-19, here at the Makengele bushmeat market, and at essentially all public places.
MEASLES : The current epidemic in Congo is newer than the Ebola
outbreak starting early in 2019, but it is the most devastating, fastest moving
measles epidemic currently in the world.
Like Covid-19 it spreads through the air, it is now in all
26 provinces of DR Congo mowing down the unvaccinated.
Unlike Covid-19 it kills mainly the young. According to MSF (Doctors without Borders), 73% of those dead were young children. World Health Organization (WHO) 25% of reported cases are under 5 years old.
A child with measles.
The devastation of measles was something we never knew growing up in a highly vaccinated, well nourished USA.
COVID-19: The third virus has been in Congo less than two
months. Unlike Measles and Ebola its impact
is most murderous among the older as well as the weakened. It came into the capital of Congo with
flights of the wealthy and politicians from Europe.
Faced with the reality of Covid-19 (no vaccine, no known
treatment) and knowing the condition of Congo’s unequipped hospitals, poor
infrastructure, urban and rural poverty, the government closed down most
internal and external transport, locked down part of the capital, instituted
hand washing and even tried to institute social distancing.
Social distancing at the bushmeat market in Kindu or any outdoor market is not yet achieved.
We are waiting to see what next week and next month and
beyond will bring.
But the key to the difference in Congo’s amazingly successful
containment of Ebola and its inability to rein in Measles … lies in foreign
funding.
WHO’s Ebola Response Funding report is the following:
270 million dollars since August 2018 when the Ebola epidemic started.
WHO is asking for another 20 million dollars this month to deal with a resurfacing of the virus, 6 new cases in the town of Beni (an infected person “disappeared” from a treatment center on the 23rd April and is still at large).
WHO’s newsletter reporting on DR Congo’s measles
epidemic stated this:
27.6 million dollars have been mobilized; however, a further
40 million is needed.
(note: most of the western world, where financial aid comes from, is vaccinated. It is apparently hard to feel measles is an important threat.)
Child in an MSF measles ward in the Ituri Province.
What will the world be able to donate to help DR Congo’s Coronavirus response?
when even the States struggle to get help from the USA federal government and
when the president of the USA has cut funding to the World Health Organization (WHO). –?
Today’s DR Congo news is that the Netherlands has voted to contribute 115 million dollars to help the poorest countries in the world with their Coronavirus response – that, of course, includes Congo. It is logical – Covid-19 has no respect for sovereignty and will rush back from wherever it remains uncontrolled.
Above a Commercial center Kinshasa on the 25th of March. Most non-food shops were closed and circulation was cut back. This corner would normally have 3x this much activity.
Dr. Jean-Paul Mira, head of Intensive Care at a Paris hospital, overwhelmed by the French Coronavirus crisis, suggested that a possible new Covid-19 vaccine be tested in Africa.
–to paraphrase: Africans don’t have masks and they have no
intensive care.. it would be like when
prostitutes were used to test treatments for AIDS….they are highly exposed and
don’t protect themselves….
The head of the Covid-19 task force in D.R.Congo Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe, a virologist who himself contracted Ebola and recovered and who was able to bring D.R. Congo’s recent Ebola epidemic under control by using still-experimental vaccines, was unperturbed.
To paraphrase Dr Muyembe: DR Congo could be ready to test
vaccines by May…”
Above Dr. Muyembe Tanfum coordinator of the Covid-19-response task-force in D.R.Congo.
The media reaction in D.R. Congo was vicious,
To paraphrase the journals:
Dr Muyembe wants us to be guinea pigs…
The international press also castigated Dr Mira and his
colleagues for being insensitive. French
medicine has a very partial understanding of the situation in Congo. I am now in Kindu and John is in Opala, both
towns in D.R. Congo. We chose not to return to the USA although the embassy in
Kinshasa is organizing an emergency flight for desperate, stranded Americans. We are not desperate.
Above the 27th March, in front of our Kinshasa office the day before a proposed city-wide “shelter-in-place”. Because of the hardship it would cause many and the difficulty of fair enforcement, the shut-down was delayed. It is now in effect but only for the two communes with the highest prevalence of coronavirus.
Where Dr Mira is correct is that facilities in the Congo are
very far from western standards. The medical
personnel are incredibly underpaid and underequipped. When John had a hernia operation in Kinshasa last
year, he was still semi-conscious in recovery when I complained that the rain
was coming through the roof and through the ceiling onto his bed. The nurses
had to balance him to another bed.
During the night we heard rats overhead.
But the operation, itself, was faultless and his wound was well-tended with
correct anti-septic procedure.
What Dr Mira missed was the adaptiveness and resourcefulness
of this administration and its people.
He also missed the fact that every person in this population feels
his/her vulnerability to Covid-19 as well as many other invisible killers. They felt this before Wuhan happened.
The first case known in the USA was in January. Now in April, the president of the United States still has not nationalized strong protective measures for all American citizens to follow.
The first case known in DR Congo was discovered 8 March, by 10 March a national state of emergency was announced and all commercial international passenger flights shut out of Congo. A week later all internal passenger flights were stopped. Schools, churches, and bars ceased to function. In Kinshasa non-essential businesses were closed.
Tshisikedi, the Congolese president, has been struggling with multiple political factions ever since his election more than a year ago, but all opposition parties and traditional leaders openly support his anti-Covid mobilization.
The provinces followed the national lead closing ferries and
roads between major cities. There are no
known cases in the town of Kindu where I now am, but for the past two weeks
there has been no school, no church, no bars.
Will that put the cap on Covid-19 spread? Probably not, but the published numbers are provocative:
It is curious that Kinshasa, a teeming third world metropolis, with more residents than New York City, mainly living hand to mouth, did not quickly spiral into crisis.
Our top project leaders here in Kindu tried to understand
the phenomenon….all of us sitting two meters apart with clean hands….
Was it because Congo is tropical and the weather always warm? Perhaps, but southeast Asia is not doing as
well.
Is it because this is such a young population? Most days I see only people at least a generation younger than myself.
Is it because early symptoms resemble malaria? People can assume
malaria and self-treat (usually not with Chloroquine) and the symptoms generally
go away.
Is it lack of air pollution?
Even in Kinshasa there is little industrial pollution, but car exhaust
is uncontrolled.
Could it be the BCG vaccine given to all children here? That is an interesting possibility.
Or are the figures a massive under-estimate of the numbers. After all in the whole of Congo there is only one testing center. Only the very sick are tested (but that too was the case in the USA not long ago).
Tomorrow, 10thApril, I leave going further into the hinterland on a motorcycle to visit base camps—off internet. John is already off line. I will be back in ten days. Possibly I will find that Kinshasa cases are exploding. Perhaps the incidence curve will spike.
We will report back … and hopefully, in the meantime, there will be much more international help for this country that is doing all that is possible to flatten its curve. Perhaps the Congolese and all of us will soon be competing for the same experimental vaccines.
Above: Coming into port in Ubundu. Food and people continue to move by dugout and barge up Congo’s many rivers. Unlike Ebola that was spread through contact with bodily fluids, Covid-19 scatters through the air and lingers on surfaces. It is on the move in Congo as elsewhere.
The last Kisangani Red Colobus seen was for sale along the major RN4 road to Kisangani.
Kisangani Red Colobus was designated a “lost species” by Global Wildlife Conservation. John Hart set out in 2019 to document what was known — either to find the Kisangani Red Colobus or to officially document its extinction. Below is a record of what he found:
The hatched area is where, in DR Congo, the Kisangani red colobus historically was known to exist.
History:
The animal suddenly disappeared
from view at the turn of the century.
It had first been collected by
Herbert Lang during the American Museum of Natural History Congo expedition
(1909-1915). The name it was given in
1925 was in his honor; the scientific name of Kisangani Red Colobus is Piliocolobus
langi.
Herbert Lang. He and James Chapin made a historic collecting trip to Congo for the American Museum of Natural history in the early 20th century.
John led expeditions with Claude Sikubwabo to Maiko National Park between 1989 and 1992 – this was within the P. langi distribution. Primates were abundant and Red Colobus the most abundant.
Mark Colyn did a general study of
Congo’s forest primates in the 1980s and 90s.
He reported in 1991 that the Kisangani Red Colobus was common and
frequent as fresh meat in the Kisangani bushmeat market. By the early 2000s it had disappeared from
the market altogether.
Several major forest roads and the Congo River all bring bushmeat to the major bushmeat market of Kisangani.
What happened? Before 1996
shotguns were almost absent from the Kisangani Red Colobus range. The reigning demagogue,
Mobutu Sésé Seko, kept a severe clamp on all privately-owned arms. Then there was the long-lasting civil war
continuing into the first years of the 21st century. Militias were abundant, shotguns and military
rifles suddenly widespread. Local manufacture
of shotguns sprang up in many rural areas.
All controls were off.
These hunters in the Lobilo forest block are mainly after monkeys. Only at night can shotguns be used for terrestrial animals and only with powerful headlamps to freeze the animal.
John found that monkeys were hunted almost
exclusively with guns. Otherwise, hunters
mainly used snares for ground-dwelling animals.
In his 2010 treatise on Red Colobus, Tom Struhsaker (2010) described the P.langi as insufficiently known — and with good reason; no one had ever set out to learn about the Kisangani Red Colobus beyond its presence in the bushmeat market…and well before 2010, it had disappeared.
Then in 2011 and 2012 two
carcasses were seen hung for sale along the main road into Kisangani (see
above). They fit the description of P.langi.
In Baego villagePaul Falay, John’s student, is using a questionnaire and photos of the 2012 carcass (see lead photo).
But since 2012 there were no
reported sightings of the Kisangani Red Colobus. Did it still exist?
John’s student, Désiré Kaisala, with guide looking into the branches for red colobus in the Balobe Forest, east of Opienge, where locals told him they still existed.
John Hart organized two search teams each made up of a a forest guide with long experience in inventories and a university trained biologist, Paul Falay and Désiré Kaisala. John trained them in forest technique, in use of questionnaires, and basic good practices for management of a small cash budget.
Their itinerary through the Kisangani Red Colobus range…..
What that Itinerary meant: Like most of DR Congo – major roads are barely roads, and most mapped roads no longer exist.
RN4 – one of the major arteries into Kisangani, where the lead photo was taken in 2012.
Crossing bicycles at the Lindi River.
Backpacking bicycles and loads. Paul Falay’s team on their way back south from Block B towards RN4.
And, of course, walking the forest. Here Paul crosses the Loko river.
BUT – They found the lost monkey.
In three months moving from
village to village; questioning hunters and following up with forest
verification inventories, Paul and Désiré were able to indicate areas of forest
where the Kisangani Red Colobus still exists and areas where it has been
extirpated.
Paul’s field map – kept as he went and gathered answers and red colobus stories from village hunters.
The field maps were refined by reviewing each interview, putting different answers together, combining answers with geographic realities and finally tending towards a conservative interpretation to generate the forest blocks identified in the maps below.
Mapped results show forest blocks that still have Kisangani red colobus, those that probably do and others that don’t. They hiked into some forest blocks for verification. For the distant forest blocks Paul and Désiré found scant information, but there were also few hunters who ventured into the most remote areas.
Everywhere they looked the Kisangani
Red Colobus was suffering. As expected, the principal loss was from
shotgun hunting. Where there was the
most hope for continued healthy populations was in the most distant forests,
rarely visited by hunters and for which little information was available.
Two activities that picked up in the 1990s and continue today have undermined Red Colobus security: An abundance of gold and diamond mines in the forests. Hunters with shotguns often set-up in the mining camps as both animals to hunt and people to buy the meat are close by.
Some forest blocks had long-standing gold operations.
AP. langi interested in the observers.
A second complication is the
abundance of military and armed militia.
The presence of military rifles and often inadequate supervision at far
outposts allowed slaughters. Kisangani
Red Colobus, are particularly susceptible to these killing sprees as they do
not flee when gunshots bring down other members of their group.
Military at far outposts perpetrated mass killings of red colobus.
John believes that relatively
modest funds could mobilize projects able to reduce the hunting problem. All red colobus taxa are totally protected
species. Already there is a barrier to
detect illegal bushmeat on the principal roads into Kisangani. More outreach, particularly to the military,
could also have an impact; as would efforts to control unregistered shotguns.
There is one repeating threat to
Kisangani Red Colobus that we are unable to control: Epidemics. Not unlike people with plague, ebola, corona
virus – the red colobus, too, seem particularly susceptible to epidemics.
Epidemics greatly reduced or obliterated red colobus populations from certain forest blocks.
Red colobus peeks through the leaves.
Despite this, the news is not all bad. The Kisangani Red Colobus was suspected of having been largely wiped out, instead, John’s teams found it in a number of areas (43 of 92 survey localities and probably present in another 24). They also found that where epidemics happened the red colobus populations seemed capable of rebounding.
Kaisala examining his photos.
Olive sunbird on her nest .. such sightings are among the unexpected pleasures of spending time in remote forest.
So, the lost monkey has been
found. Particularly good news is that at
least some of the communities are interested in protecting their remaining Kisangani
Red Colobus.
A little comment John has at the
end of this study is “And there is
probably a lot more out there that was lost, but is just waiting to be re-found
… or that has not yet been ‘discovered’ and must be found for the first time.” This is after all the Big, Little-known
Congo.
Find the full report here – with the astonishing conclusion that part of the range is not Piliocolobus langi, but an entirely other red colobus taxon.
The investigations reported above were made possible with support from Global Wildlife Conservation and Frankfurt Zoological Society.
Warning some photos that follow may be disturbing.
On the 8th of October this satellite message came from Oluo:
“At Benekamba- Debaba tortured and ear cut off by Fidel. Aggressors left in dugout – direction Kakongo.”
There is no telephone, radio or Thuraya in Benekamba. To get the news out, a bushmeat porter left
Benekamba after dark on the 7th and ran/walked as fast as he could
to Oluo.
Debaba’s ear as it looked six days after the attack.
This is what we learned a few days later: In the early afternoon of the 7th
of October, Benekamba looked the same sleepy way it always looked. Debaba was sitting alone at the chief’s baraza
(open air veranda) that looks out across the Lomami River to the east bank and
the Lomami National Park. The village
was particularly quiet as most of the men were at the nearby village of Avio
playing or watching a game of soccer.
A typical Balanga West village with barraza on right. Most public activity occurs at the barraza.
As usual Debaba was waiting for the next loaded bushmeat porter ready to cross the park. Debaba identifies the species and counts the number of animals, then gives the porter a voucher. The porter carries the voucher and meat across with him to Oluo, where the voucher is checked against his load.
The “jeton” sign in Oluo. On the left the persons who give and collect the vouchers.
This way people who need to sell their meat in the markets on the east side of the park can carry it across without being accused by park guards of hunting in the park. This system has made the west bank an important source of bushmeat. BUT this post is not a discussion of hunting or its sustainability.
There is a path from Benekamba to Oluo and from Kakongo to Bafundo. “Jetonniers” distribute and check vouchers at both ends of the path.
On the 7th of October at 14hr (2PM) it was hot
and still in Benekamba.
Suddenly next to Debaba was a young man, Zumbe, from another isolated Balanga village, Ngombe. He had a shotgun. “Defend yourself,” he said. Debaba did not react. Then two more youths from other villages ducked under the thatch roof, Fidel and Mopepe. Mopepe told Fidel, “This is Debaba, he is in charge of TL2 jetons (vouchers).” To Debaba he barked, “On the ground.” Debaba lay on the dirt floor of the baraza. Four others joined, for a total of seven assailants.
They tied
Debaba’s elbows behind his back with nylon cord. Fidel told his gang to flog him. Three took clubs
and seriously beat Debaba. Fidel said “cut
off his ear.” One of the seven, Bayo, took
a knife and slashed off his upper left ear.
Then they strung Debaba up so he was hanging from the roof of the veranda like a slaughtered goat. They beat him until he was unable to speak or cry out. When they cut the cord, he fell like a sack of fresh bushmeat.
Poor quality photo of Fidel taken by a local telephone.
A group of Djonga
(Fidel’s tribal “brothers”) were calling from the side of the village. Fidel
went to speak with them.
When he came
back, he thrust a shotgun in Mopepe’s hands and told him to shoot Debaba. Mopepe shot – but Debaba was not struck. Fidel was furious – He accused Mopepe of an
intentional miss. The assailants left in a dugout after dark, about 19hr,
heading downstream.
Photo of Debaba – 6 days later – showing where his elbows were tied with cord and the deep bruises from the beatings.
The park has made Balanga West more prosperous. It not only brings jobs, but it also makes
bushmeat hunting more profitable as the park area is now off limits. Forest animals abound in the remote 3000 km2
of Balanga West where the adult population is less than 1500 and scattered between
widely separated villages. Hunting is
the main source of cash income.
With a voucher for your load, it is like selling certified
bushmeat.
Project TL2’s Kakongo camp north of Benekamba (see map above).
Idris is in charge of distributing vouchers further north in
Balanga West, at the Lomami crossing near the village of Kakongo. He had
shut off his Delorme (satellite communication) at 22hrs (10PM) the night of October
8th. As the TL2-camp battery no
longer holds charge from the solar panels, Idris must be careful with his
rechargeable batteries. He and the local
guard/assistant, Pascal, were the only people in camp as JP was on patrol in
the park with the rest of the team.
In Kakongo, Idris writing and signing a voucher at his barraza after checking a porter’s load.
Idris opened the Delorme in the morning at 6hr30 on Oct 9th. There was an SMS sent at 23hr the night
before
“Be vigilant. Warn military.
Fidel and band coming north on Lomami from Benekamba.”
He and Pascal headed up to the military camp next to the village
of Kakongo. Only four military were
present as JP had taken two for patrolling the park. All the military were sitting outside. Idris informed the commander, Tcholilo,
immediately.
Just then another Delorme message came in from Omo, the TL2
coordinator in Kindu.
“Why haven’t you
answered?”
Idris started to answer with the military Tutu Baba watching
the process over his shoulder. There was
a sudden crackle of guns. Tutu Baba and Idris
both hit the ground. The soldiers ran
into the camp. Pascal helped Idris stumble into the wattle compound as well. Tutu Baba lay dead on the ground.
The exchange of gunfire lasted two hours, until finally Fidel’s
band retreated.
This story is not just about violence in remote areas, it is
about the selfless giving of people in response to the evil of others. If we were to just concentrate on the horror
of what Fidel perpetrated, we would not understand the story or know how to
rebuild.
Idris at the end of his 2 1/2 day journey to Kindu. A military nurse helped a third of the way along and then a nurse sent by the TL2 project helped before the last third of the trip.
In Benekamba:
Even while Fidel was torturing Debaba, a group of young Djonga bushmeat buyers came forward to protest. They addressed Fidel with respect, as a Brother. Fidel disdainfully gave them three minutes. They said, “We all need bushmeat for money. We need it to get married, to go to school, to get medicine. What you are doing will shut down vouchers. How will we cross the park?” One young Djonga, Nestor Okandja, fell to his knees and clasped Fidel’s feet. This enraged Fidel – an audacity.
As soon as Fidel and his gang left in the dugout Nestor went to Debaba where he had fallen. Another bushmeat porter started the 60 km trek across the park to Oluo in order to send a message to Kindu. A woman, Thérèse, who had come to buy bushmeat called to Nestor. He carried Debaba into the house where she was staying. Nestor had come to Benekamba to collect a bushmeat debt in order to pay for his nursing studies in Kindu. He took a sewing needle and some thread that women use to tress their hair. He sewed Debaba’s ear back on using Lidocaine, which he had in his kit, to dull pain. The woman heated water, washed and rubbed Debaba’s body.
Nestor holding the “medical” equipment he used to sew on Debaba’s ear.
The evening
of the 9th the TL2 dugout arrived from Katopa camp to take Debaba back
to where (several days later) he could be taken by motorbike to Kindu.
Thérèse, the bushmeat merchant who helped Debaba, a month later in Oluo.
In Kakongo:
On the morning of the ninth, amidst gunfire, Pascal, the TL2 camp assistant pulled the body of Tutu Baba and his rifle into the soldier’s compound; he dug a shallow grave and buried him. This is the picture he took on a poor-quality phone for the soldier’s family.
Picture taken of Tutu Baba before his burial.
At 10h, it was clear that Fidel had retreated. The three military that remained, idris, and Pascal crossed the Lomami River and started the 54 km trek to Bafundo on the other side of the park (see map above). Pascal carried the military packs. The commander often took Idris on his back when he just couldn’t continue. The other 2 military carried the arms and were the protection. They arrived at about 2hr (2 AM, dead of night) on the 10th of Oct.
Back in
Kakongo, one of our collaborators, Liboke, came forward and took everything
that was valuable from the TL2 camp and stored it in his own village of
Kondolo. Fidel fears tradition. Liboke, a wise man and manipulator of magic, is
not someone with whom Fidel will mess.
Idris in the hospital in Kindu, several days after the attack.
Who is Fidel, where did this violent aggression come from?
Fidel Lofeno is a sociopath and a criminal like his father, Thoms. His father was put in Jail in 2008 for torture, murder and the rape of over 100 women. Nevertheless, he escaped in 2011 and remains free. Since his escape Thoms has been involved in tortures, murders and senseless insurrections.
How do they get away with what they do?
In all of Balanga West and many other buffer zone areas there are no Police, and no administrative representation of the government. The only military are those the TL2 project “hired” to help with patrols until there are enough park guards. Even if military were sent urgently from the capital of Maniema Province,Kindu, it would take at least a week for them to arrive in Balanga West.
Liboke, in white shirt, meeting with other elders in Balanga West.
But why don’t local people rise up against Fidel?
Neither Fidel nor his father are supported locally. Many Balanga West chiefs have formally asked for military in their respective villages, but none come. The villages of Balanga West, understandably, have little confidence in the provincial government and even less in the national government. The government has built no roads (there are only footpaths), no schools, no health centers. The social fabric is guided by complex beliefs of required loyalty and pacts between certain ethnic lines (between the Balanga and Djonga; between the Ngombe and Bakuti…). These pacts were suited for a pre-colonial time when the strongest social units were competing clans – it was unthinkable that one would rise up against one’s own. If there were disagreements between related people, they moved away from each other. The superstitions of what happens if these traditional loyalties are broken protect sociopaths like Fidel and his father.
We know a bit of Fidel’s history:
Fidel first came to our attention when he tried to rob a
group that came in June 2018 to help the Pygmies.
May 2019 – Fidel
stole two pistols from an Ivory dealer with whom his father works.
1 June 2019 — Fidel pursued a TL2 agent who was overseeing construction of a school in a Balanga village. He stole all the possessions of the TL2 agent and $150 from the masons that accompanied him. The chief of the village intervened to help them flee.
4 June 2019- Fidel
pursued and stole from two bushmeat merchants, wounding both, one seriously, in
the process.
2 July 2019 –
Fidel murdered a travelling (bicycle) merchant (with a knife) and stole all his
merchandise.
July -August 2019
– Fidel held hostage two entire Balanga villages in Sankuru province, demanding
money from each household.
During this period a Balanga woman was distressed to see her young daughter taken by Fidel as one of his “wives”; She pursued him into northern Sankuru province pleading that her daughter be released. Fidel said that if she dared touch the daughter, he would cut off her head. The woman returned home alone.
Fidel is NOT a person that is serving the local people, nor is his father Thoms.
I cannot give
the end of this story as Fidel is still on the loose, as is his father.
But there is good news in that both Idris and Debaba are
clearly on the road to recovery. Debaba
grins like a person who wrestled with death and won… After a week in the hospital his fate was
still not clear. The doctors were
worried about a swollen spleen, kidney malfunction and internal lesions. But all has cleared.
Nestor on the left with Debaba, released from the hospital, on the right (red plaid shirt).
It was too dangerous to operate to remove the lead from
Idris. Lead from the shotgun entered his
body in five different places including beside his ear. But he has less pain now and is walking with
confidence.
Debaba on left (striped shirt) and Idris on right early in December 2019.
We are trying one by one to find the people that spontaneously
helped out our “jetonniers”.
Pascal who helped at Kakongo actually suffered from a hernia after the long day and night walk to Bafundo during which he carried all the personal loads. We met him in the TL2 camp of Katopa where he was a refugee after the Fidel attack.
We celebrated him (below) – gave him the first Lomami Park
Prize ($100). We also sent him to Kindu where he will soon
have a hernia operation.
Pascal is celebrated by first Lomami Park Prize.
The year 2020 is here. The whole TL2 project is convinced that there is a way to move forward in this new year and we are doing so. The people working together are many and we are strong. What is right for the forest and its people is understood by almost all as a common good.
As Frankfurt Zoological Society's leader of the TL2 Project I represent an outstanding team of Congolese field biologists. My husband and I set out in 2007 to explore an unknown forest. We found bonobos, a new species of monkey, forest elephant, okapi, Congo peacock... With our staff and local leaders we sought a means to protect this wilderness forever. In July 2016 the Lomami National Park was declared: 8,874 sq km. Our mission, through Frankfurt Zoological Society, with our TL2 staff, is now to build effective conservation from village-base to national administration for the park and buffer zone. Read more.
terese AT bonoboincongo DOT com
Thank you from TL2! You contributed $2,518,256 in 2020 and we turned it into action on the ground.
We used these funds to increase our monitoring and patrol coverage in the park (in 2020, patrols covered a total of 12,300 km on foot and mainly off-trail through forest); We maintained a permanent outreach presence in the buffer zone helping local populations with community projects (fish-ponds, village-built research house, bridges and road clearance). We continue to work with the population to improve their overall security and social peace.
Your support and interest are the greatest motivation possible. Our responsibility is to keep you informed through this blog-site and through our reports and photos. Don’t hesitate to ask us specific questions.
Our direct thanks go to (in the order that funding was received in 2020) Full Circle Foundation, Woodtiger Fund, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Wildcat Foundation, Elephant Crisis Fund, Temperatio, Frankfurt Zoological Society Core Funds and the contributors through Paypal at this blogsite.
The three river basins of the Tshuapa, Lomami and Lualaba Rivers (TL2), Congo’s forest enigma, ascend through its geographic heart. We have answered our first question "Is Congo's own great ape, the bonobo, found in TL2?" Yes it is? And so is Congo's endemic rainforest giraffe, the okapi and the rare Congo peacock. But, now the challenge is to bring real protection to the forests before the bonobo and all other large animals are hunted out.
We make a great team:
John Hart, Scientific Director."What I like most about the work is the anticipation….." read more
Matthieu Mirambo, Program Manager. “Hunting damaged the forest of the village where I was born, all the elephants disappeared…” read more
Maurice Emetshu, Outreach Leader. When people reject what he tells them, Maurice … tries again.. read more
Simeon Dino, Program Coordinator for Tshopo Province.
Dino’s father was not particularly interested in the forest or conservation... read more
Ohm Omene, Program Coordinator for Maniema Province.
"I kept asking the field leader, Papa Maurice: ‘Is this job really like this? Because I am leaving right now!’ And that was only after 4 days..." read more
Leon Salumu, Ambassador for PALL and Public Relations Officer, Maniema. A turning point was when he learned that his colleague, Boni, was twice slashed with a machete… read more
Henri Silegowa, Field Leader for Tshopo Province.
It was at the University of Kisangani that this first interest turned to a passion. read more
Pablo Ayali, We lost our Team Leader – Pablo passed away on December 2, 2018.
Pablo’s favorite part of the work was simply being in the forest. “For Conservation, you need love, passion and motivation.” read more
Junior Amboko, Team leader in charge of camera traps for Maniema. “When we download the photos and videos from the camera trap cards, we see the miracle…” read more
Robert Abani, PALL deputy in Tshopo Province.
“My father told us, ‘now the world is going in a direction where conservation needs to have an important role. You should learn about this…” read more
Koko Bisimwa, Assistant Director of Inventory and Monitoring Unit (IMU).
As he read about conservation, Koko wanted to leave mining behind, and to use his skills for conservation instead... read more
Willy Ali Lutenga, Environmental Law Advisor.
It is unusual for a lawyer to walk long distances in the bush, but for Willy that is not a problem... read more
Ildefonse Bulembe Kalunga, Fishpond Project Leader.
He recalls a villager who cultivated 6 baskets of Tilapia from one little fishpond. This was a real pleasure for Ildefonse... read more
More soon...
We’ve been in the field – Congo’s TL2 – since May 2007.
