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Rangers at a UN-listed wildlife sanctuary in eastern DRC protested for a sixth day on Tuesday over what they say are months of unpaid wages, witnesses said.
The ecological guards of the Kahuzi-Biega National Park installed barricades at the entrance to prevent the entry of employees, although the inhabitants of the vast park were allowed to pass, they told AFP.
The park, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list, comprises 600,000 hectares (1.5 million acres) of tropical rainforest that is home to the world’s largest population of eastern lowland gorillas in particular.
The park rangers began their protest on December 24, saying they had not been paid for 10 months. Witnesses say that for the next four days, protesters fired warning shots at the park entrance.
Rene Muderwha, director of a local civil society association in Miti, where the park is based, said the dispute could “flare up” dangerously and called for the two sides to quickly find a lasting solution.
“It is unthinkable to make people work without pay,” he said, but criticized the way the demonstration was being carried out.
“They have the right to claim their pay, but it has been done in accordance with paramilitary regulations.”
Park spokesman Hubert Mulongoy said the late payment issue “concerns not just the rangers, but all the Kahuzi-Biega workers.”
“The rioters have already been identified, they will have to answer for their deeds before the military justice,” he said from Bukavu, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the park entrance.
“We will do everything possible to restore order in this place,” said Louis Tshimwang, a spokesman for the army in the region.
An environmental radio channel, Gorilla FM, which operates from the park headquarters, said it had had to stop broadcasting for the time being.
The armed protesters had been intimidating journalists and studio technicians, two journalists there said.
Kahuzi-Biega, which operates under the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICCN), has in recent years struggled with illegal activities, including the presence of armed groups and the burning of coal.
