S uspected Hutu militiamen killed 16 people, including 12 rangers, on Friday in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo's Virunga National Park, a government official said, in the deadliest such attack in Virunga's recent history.
Around 60 fighters from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) ambushed a convoy of civilians that was being protected by 15 rangers, said Cosma Wilungula, director of the Congo Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN). Many others were seriously injured, he said.
Virunga sits on the forest-covered volcanoes of central Africa and is home to over half the global population of mountain gorillas. It is Africa's oldest national park and largest tropical rainforest reserve, covering 7,800 sq km (3,000 sq miles).