Peace for all

"We planned to go to Bukima today but at the last moment, Monuc asked to delay a joint mission. This is important because rebels still keep there positions and we heard that there are some “releve” (change) of troops from Rwanda. We have an appointment tomorrow with Monuc at the catholic parish of Rugari, at 8h00 we will be climbing to Bukima. The aim is to do an assessment on the ground and to ensure that rebels will not attack us and our rangers as we do our work.

We have had some sporadic news from the front-runners. We heard that there are 2 babies born in Mapuwa and Kabirizi family. It sounds too good to be true, but we remain cautious as the news is not certain, and we have been disappointed so many times in the past. We cannot provide more information about mothers and those babies. We need to do an assessment to certify what female get the baby as well as to know the actual status of the families. We can certify that 3 big families have been found: Humba and Kabirizi and Mapuwa but we cannot know if its composition remains the same. We are still looking for 3 other small families Rugendo, and Muniaga (5 individuals each) and Lulengo (4 individuals).

In Gatovu sector, another group of 10 individuals has been found under the leadership of a non-habituated silverback. This may result from a dislocation of some families or from the threats of bombing few days ago, some individuals may get lost. We need to verify this information and to establish the real origin of this new family. We hope that the appointment of tomorrow will be helpful to launch early Thursday (February 13^th) a general assessment after a long period without a monitoring.

Tomorrow I will update you on our struggles to stop the charcoal trade. For now, let me tell you that we are all extremely excited and impatient to get back to work."