February 15th, 2019 – Virunga National Park has re-opened for tourism. The park will now start selling gorilla trekking trips and Mount Nyiragongo hiking trips as before.
“Dear colleagues, we are very pleased to inform you that Virunga National Park is resuming tourism for 2019,” Virunga announced.
“We resume tourism activities after a period of suspension. There were incidents that led to the death of our park warden. Two British tourists were kidnapped. We were forced to suspend activities until there were security guarantees and a reorganization of the tourism sector in Virunga National Park,” said an ICCN officer.
Virunga re-opened on February 15th, 2019, for the first time since its closure last year. The park was closed following an ambush by a Congolese militia that led to the death of Rachel Masika Baraka, one of the park rangers, and the abduction of two tourists.
Rachel Masika Baraka was the ranger who died while trying to save the British tourists from being abducted.
Emmanuel de Merode, the director of the park, went on to announce the closure to avoid more problems. He also said that the park would re-open the following year (2019) after improving its security. This is exactly what has been promised this year.
Now that the park has re-opened, tourists will only be allowed to do gorilla trekking and Mount Nyiragongo hiking. The areas where these two activities are done are now considered safe for tourism.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is home to some of the world’s last remaining mountain gorillas. These gorillas are found in Virunga National Park in the eastern part of Congo.
It is one of the best and cheapest places to see mountain gorillas in the wild. Congo gorilla permits cost only $400 each.
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