Conservation ranger slain in Congo’s Virunga National Park

By JEAN-YVES KAMALE
Associated Press

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — A conservation park ranger has been killed during an attack by armed men this weekend in eastern Congo’s Virunga National Park. The Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation said Sunday that Chief Brigadier Etienne Mutazimiza Kanyaruchinya, 48, was killed Saturday evening when 100 heavily armed men, presumed to be former members of the M23 rebel group, attacked a patrol post near the village of Bukima in Congo’s North Kivu Province. The group said the rest of the rangers fled the scene unharmed. The Institute said this was the second attack in two weeks by the same group, which operates along the Rwandan and Ugandan borders and is trying to establish bases in the park.