28-04-2025
Rangers defy new threat to protect Virunga National Park
Even from the air, Virunga National Park's scale and beauty are almost impossible to grasp. At the controls of a Bat Hawk bush aircraft, the park's director Emmanuel De Merode points north towards the Rwenzori massif where 17,000ft peaks defy the equatorial heat with their permanent snow cover and glaciers that feed the Nile.
He banks low to follow the curving Semliki river. Below, hippos and crocodiles slip into the current that drains Lake Edward, which straddles the border between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. A pair of elephants emerging from acacia trees completes the Eden-like scene.
'They're feeling safe enough to return to Virunga,' De Merode, 54, says, his voice crackling through the headset over the roar of the single propeller. He
