Two British tourists kidnapped in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Female park ranger travelling with pair killed, local media reports
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Your support makes all the difference.Two British citizens have been kidnapped in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the foreign office has said.
The man and woman were reportedly abducted alongside their driver on Friday while they were visiting the Virunga National Park, a renowned gorilla sanctuary in the east of the country.
A female park ranger also travelling with the pair was killed, the park said.
The tourist's vehicle was ambushed on its way from Kibumba to the city of Goma, Joel Wengamulay, spokesman for the Congolese Institute for The Conservation of Nature, told the UN-backed Radio Okapi.
Investigations into the attack have begun, Mr Wengamulay said.
A park guard said the driver was injured in the ambush, which happened about 10 kilometres (6 miles) north of Goma. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to speak to the press.
The park has seen rising violence in recent months, with armed gangs fighting over the area's natural resources, in particular its charcoal. Last year, a fifth of the site’s southern sector was deforested owing to illegal charcoal production, the park said.
DRC is still recovering from a bloody civil war that raged between 1997 and 2003, and the recent surge in violence has concerned aid agencies, who warned the country was “on a cliff edge”.
Last month, five rangers and a driver were killed in a militia ambush, the park said.
It was the deadliest attack in recent years and took the total number of rangers killed to 175.
The rising death toll has earned the park, which is a Unesco world heritage site, a reputation as one of the most dangerous conservation projects on the planet.
The park spans 3,000 square miles on the DRC’s border with Uganda and Rwanda and is home to to around a quarter of the world’s critically endangered mountain gorillas and other endangered species, as well as lions, elephants, hippos and a host of rare bird species.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We are in close contact with the authorities in Democratic Republic of the Congo following an incident involving two British nationals, and our staff are providing support to their families.”
Press Association contributed to this report
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