Popular-25-year-old-Ugandan-gorilla-killed-at-UNESCO-park

Ugandan authorities have arrested four men in connection with the killing of a famous 25-year-old gorilla, the leader of a troop in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

According to Reuters, the Silverback gorilla, named Rafiki, went missing on June 1, and his body was found a day later.

Bwindi is a 320-sq-km UNESCO heritage site located near Uganda’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is home to primates, elephants, antelopes and other wildlife.

Many tourists visit the park to see its 400 mountain gorillas, that’s nearly half the primates’ population globally.

In a statement, the state-run Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) said the four men were detained for their role in the death of Rafiki.

The arrests were made after UWA’s investigation of Rafiki’s death “after a postmortem report revealed that the Silverback sustained an injury by a sharp device/object that penetrated its left upper part of the abdomen up to the internal organs.”

One of the detained men was found in possession of wild hog meat, rope and wire snares and spears, the statement said.

The man “confessed to killing the gorilla in self-defense,” the statement said, adding he said it charged at him while he and a colleague were hunting.

Rafiki was head of a 17-member gorilla group called Nkuringo.

Originally Publish at: https://newsaf.cgtn.com/