Rwanda Conflict Shuts Gorilla Park
Authorities in Uganda have closed a forest park where rare mountain gorillas live, fearing that fighting could spill over the frontier from neighboring Rwanda and threaten tourists.
“We have closed the Mgahinga National Park to tourists basically for their safety. Chances are very high fighting might spill over into the park,” an official of the state-run Uganda National Parks said of Monday’s action.
Mgahinga, in southwestern Uganda, is part of a chain of forests that stretch through northern Rwanda and eastern Zaire and are home to the world’s last few hundred mountain gorillas.
A parks official said troops of Uganda’s National Resistance Army were patrolling the border with Rwanda, where fighting erupted after Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and President Cyprian Ntayamira of nearby Burundi died in a mysterious plane crash April 6.
A few gorillas have crossed into Uganda in recent weeks, the parks official said. He said they could have crossed from either Rwanda’s Volcano Park or Zaire’s Virunga Park.
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