A non-governmental organization (NGO) Gorilla Organization says at least six mountain gorillas were recently killed after being trapped by poachers in the Virunga forest in North Kivu province in the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo).

"In less than a year, at least six gorillas, with four of them from Rwanda and two from DR Congo, have been killed. The gorillas are always trapped. The traps always target the giraffes and other animals but they end up capturing the gorillas," said Tuver Wundi, the spokesman for the Gorilla Organization, on Monday.

The Virunga forest comprises the Virunga national park in DR Congo, the Volcano national park in Rwanda and the Kakinga national park in Uganda.

A similar appeal for an end to the massacre of gorillas in the Virunga national park has also been issued by the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN).

The ICCN has also raised concern over the killing of its game rangers by poachers using weapons that are more and more sophisticated.

An anthropoid measuring four meters high and with a wide chest, the mountain gorilla is a rare animal species facing extinction.

The Virunga national park and Kahuzi Benga park in eastern DR Congo, the Volcano national park in Rwanda and Kakinga in Uganda are the only remaining places where mountain gorillas live. Enditem

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