Snowfields above 5,000 m and mountain gorillas: the Congo park on the World Heritage danger list

Background

Virunga National Park in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has reported that laboratory tests confirmed anthrax, caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis, in hippopotamus carcasses found in the Semuliki River. Park officials put the toll at 28 hippos over about a month, and said they are watching the area, disposing of carcasses safely and warning nearby residents not to touch or eat animals found dead. The park was founded in 1925 and is the oldest national park in Africa. UNESCO placed it on the World Heritage List in 1979 under the natural criteria (vii), (viii) and (x). Its habitats run from swamps and steppes to the snowfields of Rwenzori at over 5,000 m, and from lava plains to savannahs on the slopes of volcanoes. Mountain gorillas live in the park and birds from Siberia spend the winter there; UNESCO's description of the property speaks of some 20,000 hippopotamuses in its rivers, while the park's own census of February 2026 put the hippo population at more than 2,700 in 171 groups. The property has also been on the List of World Heritage in Danger since 1994, and UNESCO records it in the province of North-Kivu and Orientale province.