DRC- 05 September 2025 – Another bonobo was killed yesterday, September 3, 2025, in the territory of Lodja, Nvunge sector, ELONGO village. A case that perfectly illustrates the drama unfolding. They are there, in the depths of the equatorial forest, hanging from the treetops or covering clearings in search of fruit.
The great apes – chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas – still live, but barely survive. Far from the romantic image of wildlife documentaries, their daily life in the Democratic Republic of Congo is marked by hunting, fear… and death. And their fate is not just a tragedy for biodiversity. It has become a danger to humanity.
Since September 4, 2025, the health zone of Bulape, in the territory of Mweka, has been on alert. A new Ebola epidemic has been declared. Already 16 deaths, including 4 healthcare workers, out of 28 suspected cases. A virus that returns to haunt a region previously devastated in 2007, 2008, and 2011. Once again, eyes are turned to a silent culprit: hunting and consumption of bushmeat, especially that of great apes.
“It’s not just about killing a totally protected species, which in itself is already a scandal,” says a veterinarian from INRB, his voice tight, after seeing a video where a decapitated bonobo is handled with bare hands, the brain exposed, blood flowing over a hunter’s fingers in the territory of Lodja, Nvunge sector, ELONGO village. “All it takes is a scratch, a cut on the nail, and the virus passes. That’s how we open the door to Ebola.”
This scene is not isolated. Every week, in the forest markets of the region, primate carcasses are displayed, sold, consumed. For some, it’s about traditions, about survival. But at what price? The Ebola virus – a zoonosis transmitted from animal to human – finds fertile ground in these daily practices.
What is shocking is not just the brutality. It’s the blindness, says an environmentalist contacted by phone by kilalopress. “Great apes are not like other animals. They are our closest genetic cousins, sharing more than 98% of our DNA. They live in complex social groups, mourn their dead, play with their young, support their injured,” he adds. Scientists speak of them with respect, communities kill them with indifference.
And yet, they are the gardeners of the forest. By dispersing seeds, by maintaining the balance of ecosystems, they are essential to the regeneration of Congolese forests. Their disappearance endangers much more than their species: it weakens the entire chain of life. In several forest provinces of Congo, local populations are often trapped by poverty and lack of information. They are victims as much as they are responsible. In schools, there is no awareness about the risks associated with wildlife. In markets, no veterinary control. And in the forests, traps close as much on animals as on the future of villages.
Experts are clear: protecting great apes is also about protecting ourselves. Each carcass sold, each animal handled without precaution, brings the next epidemic a little closer. The protection of wildlife can no longer be seen as a luxury or a foreign constraint. It has become a health, ecological, and human imperative.
The Ministry of Health must work closely with the Ministry of Environment, and especially with forest communities, to educate, prevent, protect. Information campaigns must be launched in local languages, with respected community relays. It is urgent to offer viable food and economic alternatives. What if we looked at great apes differently? What if, instead of seeing them as prey, we saw them as neighbors, distant relatives? Beings who laugh, who love, who suffer. Who flee when they hear humans approach. Who huddle against their young, like us.
Jonas Bombwe, an environmentalist from Miti in South Kivu, thinks that much more needs to be done: “It’s time to remember that every virus, every death, every tear in Congolese villages has a deep root: the rupture between man and nature. Restoring this link is perhaps, finally, the beginning of healing.”
By kilalopress
