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The National Congress for the Defence of the People (Congrès
national pour la défense du peuple, CNDP) is a Tutsi domi-
nated militia established by Laurent Nkunda in the Kivu region
of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in December 2006,
numbering an estimated 8000 troops, bringing together sev-
eral militia groups and many Tutsi fighters. In early January
2009, Bosco Ntaganda, formerly from the Union of Congolese
Patriots and now a CNDP officer, declared that he was taking
leadership from Nkunda. Nkunda was arrested on 22 Janu-
ary after he had crossed in Rwanda. Ntaganda was awarded a
senior position by attempting to integrate CNDP forces into
the Congolese army, with limited success. Some 6,000 CNDP
militia were in theory adopted into the FARDC, but in spite of
several peace agreements intended to convert the CNDP into
a political party, they are still heavily involved in the fighting
and looting in the region.
CNDP
The Congolese army (Forces Armées de la République Démocra-
tique du Congo (FARDC)) number around 130,000 troops, but
has suffered substantially from lack of payment and support.
Several other countries have attempted to support the FADRC,
including countries with mineral interests in the DRC, in an at-
tempt to bring stability. Also the UN has attempted to work with
FADRC including joint operations and supply of funds to pay
the soldiers, with variable success, and the FADRC has, like the
militias, been involved in atrocities and looting.
FADRC
dominated Rwandan Democratic Liberation Forces (FDLR),
many involved in the 1994 Rwanda genocide, as well as the
Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) from Uganda. However, much
of the militia have continued their business, still fuelled by an
influx of arms in exchange for minerals and timber through
neighboring countries, including the continued involvement of
corrupt officials and subsidiaries of many multinational com-
panies. This continues to impact the gorillas and their habitats.
Gorillas are also impacted as a direct result of contact with
armed militia, or where they have been wounded as a result
of mines or booby traps. Gorillas frequently spend most of the
day feeding, otherwise rest, most of the time on the ground.
They vary the time spent in a site according to season and di-
gestibility and availability of food, often moving out for months
returning in a partial circle after some months when sites are
in recovery from former use, using an area from 5 and up to
40 km
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, dependent upon terrain, season and food availability.
Booby traps, typically consisting of a fragmentation grenade
fastened with two forked twigs and a trip wire, or anti-person-
nel mines, are rarely placed randomly throughout the forests,
but mainly on trails, in natural travelling routes such as on
ridges between different terrain, or in downhill slopes towards
drainages and near water crossings. However, in spite of the