The territory administrator of Beni, Colonel Charles Euta Omeonga, launched the process of distributing plots in the Congo Ya Sika area at the Kasindi border post on Friday, March 15 of the current year.
This area has been in conflict with the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICCN) over the boundaries of the Virunga National Park. The territorial authority stated that at least 1500 people, most of whom are war-displaced, would benefit from these plots for housing.
In an interview with the press on the same Friday, Colonel Charles Euta Omeonga stated that there is already a provisional agreement between the Congolese government and the ICCN.
“Let the people be stable, there is nothing to fear, there is already a protocol of agreement with the ICCN despite the provisional limit, but it is already an achievement for us,” he said.
In a phone call with a representative of the Congolese Institute for Conservation on Sunday, March 17, 2024, who responded anonymously, it was stated that there has never been an agreement to distribute plots in the Congo Ya Sika area.
“Firstly, it is a violation of the law, and beyond that, it goes against the statement of January 6, 2024, because there was no question of declassifying this area, but rather a question of preventing encroachment. If the authorities have already declassified this area, they should take responsibility, and the ICCN cannot comment on it.”
The representative continued, “The area is not declassified. A responsible authority should refrain from granting land titles before the government can make a decision. The statements from 2022 and January 6, 2024, are clear. The electric fence is a measure to stop the encroachment into the park, prevent attacks by the populations occupying this part of the park by the park’s animals, and on a security level, the electric fence supports the security services in blocking the quick access to the ADF who were making incursions in Lubiriha.”
This resource person believes that, “I think the role that the Territorial Authority (TA) would play, not him because it’s a matter that can be resolved by a village chief or the governor’s delegated official, is to relocate the people who were on the part saved by the ICCN to empty spaces in the part under study in parliament. The TA and the elected officials of the Beni territory would have to force the government to declassify this area through a report.”
Furthermore, they believe that, “His presence in Lubiriha, the actions he is taking under the pretext, as everyone knows, are illegal.”
The Virunga National Park faces several threats, including increased poaching, the inability of personnel to ensure surveillance of the park’s 650 km boundaries, the massive arrival of thousands of displaced and refugee occupants in areas adjacent to the park (leading to overpopulation), and significant deforestation of the lowlands.
Established in 1925 under the name Albert and later assuming its current identity (Virunga), this heritage, listed as a World Heritage Site since 1979, has been a constant source of conflicts. “In order to clarify the conversion of the protected areas of the Virunga National Park into disputed spaces where conflicts often turn into violence, inquiries, mainly in the form of semi-guided interviews, were conducted from March 2009 to November 2017, with over two hundred people. The interviewees belong to the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICCN), the Ministries of Agriculture and Environment, formal and informal popular institutions (customary notables, land chiefs, farmer and fisher associations, “development” groups, and individuals identified as leaders of groups), and other institutions involved in local development, such as non-governmental organizations and local trader committees and religious denominations.
by the neaws team