{Four people have been killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in clashes between Congolese national park rangers and Rwandan rebels in the east of the country, the park says.}
The Virunga national park said in a statement on Sunday that one of its rangers and three rebel fighters of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) were killed in a battle in the park on Saturday morning.
Two guards were wounded and a rebel was arrested, the statement said.
The park, which is home to the country’s only population of endangered mountain gorillas, said the attack was believed to have been carried out “in retaliation against the rangers’ efforts to prevent the militias from regaining control of an area close to the habitat of the critically endangered mountain gorillas.”
Founded in 1952, the UNESCO world heritage site is the oldest national park in the African continent.
The eastern Congo has experienced interminable cycles of violence since 1998.
The African country has faced numerous problems over the past few decades, such as grinding poverty, crumbling infrastructure, and a war in the east of the country.
Press TV
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