Guards protecting elephants shot dead

Team surveyed Garamba park in Democratic Republic of Congo

Two Democratic Republic of Congo soldiers and a wildlife conservation guard have been shot dead in Garamba National Park while attempting to protect elephants from poachers, the park’s management said Friday.

The three men died Thursday “when they were ambushed by a group of heavily-armed poachers, believed to be South Sudanese,” the African Parks NGO said in a statement.

The victims were members of a reinforcement team which surveyed the Garamba park in the country’s north east.

They arrived to support a ranger team on the ground who exchanged fire with the poachers, the statement said.

“The three men sustained multiple bullet wounds and died instantly,” added African Parks which runs the national park along with the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature.

Target for poachers

Garamba is home to 1,700 elephants, according to wildlife surveys, making it a target for armed ivory poachers.

With rangers patrolling 13,000 square kilometres (8,000 square miles) of grassland and forest, it is difficult to keep the giant mammals safe.

Sudanese raiders are suspected of killing the endangered elephants.

Last June, African Parks warned of a “poaching onslaught” in Garamba after 68 elephants were killed in just two months. Ten of them were slaughtered on a single day.

The Ugandan rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), whose ranks are infamously swelled by abducted children, have also poached in Garamba.

Ugandan troops who are meant to be hunting fugitive LRA chief Joseph Kony down, as well as members of the South Sudanese and Congolese armies, are also believed to be involved in poaching.