Murderer of Rafiki, the rare silverback mountain gorilla from Uganda, imprisoned

The killer of one of Uganda’s best-known mountain gorillas, Rafiki, has been imprisoned for 11 years.

Felix Byamukama pleaded guilty to illegally entering a protected area and killing a gorilla.

Byamukama had said that the gorilla attacked him and he killed Rafiki in self-defense, according to the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA).

Mountain gorillas are in danger with just over 1,000 in existence and the UWA said “Rafiki has received justice.”

Byamukama also pleaded guilty to killing a small antelope, known as a duiker, and a wild pig, as well as being in possession of wild and duiker pork.

He previously admitted to the UWA that he and three others had gone to the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park with the intention of hunting smaller animals and that he killed Rafiki in self-defense when he was attacked.

Investigations showed that Rafiki was killed by a sharp object that penetrated his internal organs.

The gorilla disappeared on June 1 and its body was discovered by a search party the following day.

A UWA team tracked Byamukama to a nearby town, where he was found with hunting gear.

Three others denied the charges and have been jailed pending trial.

Byamukama will serve multiple sentences at the same time, leading to 11 years in jail, well below the life sentence he was predicted to have received.

This was because he was not tried in a special wildlife court, a UWA spokesman told the BBC.

The Silverback, believed to be around 25 years old when he died, was the leader of a group of 17 mountain gorillas.

This group of gorillas was described as habituated, which means that their members were used to human contact.

Conservationists were concerned that the group was taken by a wild silver back that did not want to come into contact with humans, which could have affected tourism.

But UWA has confirmed that the group is now led by a family member and that it is stable.

Mountain gorillas are a popular attraction for visitors to the country and the UWA relies on tourists for income.

Rafiki himself was very popular with people who had come to the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

But the parks were closed during the coronavirus pandemic, and the UWA said there was an increase in poaching. It has counted more than 300 incidents during the closing months, reports BBC’s Patience Atuhaire.

The mountain gorilla species is restricted to protected areas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda.

They can be found in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and in a network of parks in the Virunga mountain range that runs along the borders of all three countries.

In 2018, the mountain gorilla was removed from the list of critically endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, after intensive conservation efforts, including anti-poaching patrols, paid off.

IUCN now classifies the species as endangered.