| |
|
|
| |
Kinshasa Zoo, once pride of Africa, could disappear |
|
| |
Kinshasa zoo, once upheld as a model for others in
Africa, is now a collection of unkempt cages, poorly fed animals and
unpaid keepers, and could disappear altogether without outside aid.
Created in 1933 by the Belgian colonial administration (Fernand de Boeck),
opened in 1938. The zoo occupies a vast area of land in the middle of a
man-made forest in the center of the capital of the Democratic Republic
of Congo, the former Zaire. It long served as a transit zone for animals
destined for export to Belgium, but after independence in 1960 the zoo
was put under the control of the country's new authorities.
Its collection includes primates, especially monkeys and chimpanzees,
three leopards, two of which were seized from a US national trying to
illegally smuggle them out of the country, antelopes, wild birds and a
range of reptiles including pythons, crocodiles and the like. All come
from the country's forests or the Congo River basin.
"The zoo is no longer beautiful. We have financial and material
difficulties that seriously limit our activities and dangerously
threaten the future of the zoo," said zoo director Mosubao Nzinza. The
animals' cages and dens have not been kept up since the Belgians left
and the rooftops on some are in danger of caving in. Some of the reptile
caves are full of cracks.
The situation deteriorated further as the country was caught up in the
uprising by a rebel alliance led by now President Laurent Kabila. The
rebels seized the capital in Kinshasa in May and toppled dictator Mobutu
Sese Seko, who was accused of saddling the country with debts, misrule,
corruption and a failure to move towards democracy.
"We can no longer house the animals in such conditions that have no
safety guarantees either for the species or the visitors," said Nzinza.
One zoo worker was recently bitten by a famished chimpanzee ready to
grab at anything that looked like food. Not far from the zoo director's
office, three chimpanzees crowded into a barbed wire cage, their faces
lined from hunger and years of captivity. They are among the lucky ones,
fed regularly if minimally by visitors who carry them bread and fruit.
An association called The Animals' Friends created by a Belgian national
goes around each day collecting leftover food from the capital's big
hotels so the zoo animals have at least something to eat. But "this food
is not at all adapted to the animals' needs,"
said the zoo director.
Inside the zoo, the staff is raising chickens, ducks and has set up a
pond to raise tilapias, a tasty much-prized fish native to the great
lakes of Africa, to feed the primates and reptiles. "All this is
insufficient and does not allow us to fill in the food shortages for the
animals," said Nzinza. Two lions have already died at the zoo from lack
of food and proper veterinary care, said Christine-Monique Kahindo, the
zoo's scientific and zoological director.
Nzinza has estimated that to function normally the zoo, which has 30
employees, needs more than 15,000 dollars per month. "We are short of
money. Our intake generated from visits, about 30 dollars a day, is far
from sufficient," he said, stressing that the only hope now was
international aid. "We hope that after the meeting of the 'Friends of
Congo' in Brussels, the donors will not hesitate to fly to our rescue,"
he said.
The Friends of Congo, 26 countries and international organizations, held
a donor conference in Brussels last week at the initiative of the World
Bank at Kinshasa's request. They agreed to create a support fund for the
DRC's economy linked to Kinshasa's "progress" on human rights and
democracy.
Source: Agence France-Presse; 9th December 1997
|
|
|
|
|
