DRCs famous Okapi animal species is edging closer to extinction, Désiré Nesobange a provincial minister in Ituri has warned.
On the International Okapi Day, the minister indicated that the number of these animals has significantly decreased in recent years, following poaching armed forces, to the felling of trees in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve (RFO) in Mambasa territory, but also following the proliferation of armed groups in this protected area.
'The Okapi has been known since 1900 by the indigenous people. Their number was around 5,000 when this reserve was created. Today, the workforce there is so reduced around 1,500, even below that because 1,500 was around 2014-2015. But today, with all the threats we live in, we can be even below 1,000. So the Okapi at Epulu remains only on the outskirts of its head office. The Okapi wildlife reserve is under enormous pressure from armed poaching, which is what makes Okapi decrease; there is also the cutting of trees, but also and above all the proliferation of armed groups which constitutes a serious threat at the level of the Okapi wildlife reserve and which is the basis for the extermination of this animal ', he said.
It should be noted that in 2014, several dozen Okapi were shot dead by Mai-Mai militiamen led by the late rebel leader Morgan Sindani during an incursion into the RFO.
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Source : https://taarifa.rw/drc-warns-against-extinction-of-okapi/
