After raiding Democratic Republic of Congo's Virunga National Park and killing a wildlife officer, the Mayi-Mayi militia are threatening to slaughter rare mountain gorillas, officials said. The attackers looted the three sites—research stations and tourism camps—seizing arms and communications equipment. Thirteen park workers were also briefly held hostage. According to WildlifeDirect, an organization involved in conservation at Virunga, the area attacked is only two hours walk from a unique and isolated population of gorillas. The park is home to half of the 700 mountain gorillas that remain in the world. "This was an unprovoked attack on our Rangers and other wildlife officers who protect Virunga’s wildlife," Virunga’s park director Norbert Mushenzi said in a statement distributed by WildlifeDirect. "And the Mayi-Mayi said that if we retaliate, they will kill all the gorillas in this area." (Reuters, May 23)

A rampage by the Mungiki gang, which climaxed May 20 with the beheadings of three men, has prompted scores of residents to flee Kianjogu village in Kenya's Muranga North District. One of the Mungiki leaders, Stephen Kiunjuri, was gunned down by police that night, to the cheers of villagers. The gang has imposed illegal fees, forced youths to sniff tobacco, and repeatedly invaded homes and slaughtered livestock as owners watch. "They would just come into your place and slaughter goats," one resident said. The group established checkpoints, including at the entrance to a shopping center, charging fees for men who were circumcised to pass. In nearby Githemba village, police found Mungiki suspects with parts of male reproductive organs. Local police commander Stanley Lamai said the scene was littered with blood and religious paraphernalia. More organs were found in a house nearby during the May 22 night raid in village. "This is weird. We suspect they were conducting a ritual," said Lamai. (The Standard, Kenya, May 23; The Standard, May 24)

International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo announced May 22 that a war crimes investigation will be opened into hundreds of rapes and other violations in the Central African Republic. The investigation concerns the conflict between the former regime of President Ange-Felix Patasse and rebel forces after a failed coup by current president Francois Bozize in October 2002, but the Court is also monitoring the ongoing war in the country's north.

Pakistani UN peacekeeping troops have traded in gold and sold weapons to Congolese militia groups they were supposed to be disarming, according to a BBC report. These militia groups were guilty of some of the worst rights in during the Democratic Republic of Congo's long civil war. The trading went on in 2005 around the mining town of Mongbwalu, in northeastern Congo—the scene of brutal fighting between the Lendu and Hema ethnic groups. A UN investigative team sent to gather evidence was obstructed and threatened, the report charges. The team's report was finally suppressed by the UN itself to "avoid political fallout."

The two main guerilla organizations in eastern Ethiopia's Ogaden region—the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF)—say their forces have killed more than 150 government troops in joint operations this month. Ethiopian officials deny the claim. The OLF seeks autonomy for region's majority Oromo peoples, while the ONLF wants an independent state for ethnic Somalis in the region. Last month, the ONLF attacked a Chinese-run oil installation, killing 65 Ethiopian and nine Chinese workers. (BBC, May 21)

Hundreds of Somalis who have fled violence in Mogadishu for the separatist enclave of Somaliland are unable to obtain aid from the UN as refugees or internally displaced persons (IDPs), because the UN does not recognize the breakaway republic as independent, while the government of Somaliland is unwilling to compromise claims of independence by recognizing Somalis as IDPs. (AlJazeera, May 21)

From the Global Information Network, May 21:

New York, NY — Mauritanian exiles living in New York filed a class action lawsuit today against Maaouya Ould Sidi Ahmed Taya, for the crimes committed during a campaign of ethnic cleansing of Black Mauritanians from 1989 to 1991. The lawsuit was filed in United States Federal Court by attorneys from the Refugee Defense Alliance.

A ship carrying tons of UN aid has refused to leave Kenya for Somalia following the May 19 pirate attack on an aid ship. The pirates failed to seize the ship, but one crew member was killed. It was the eighth priate attack of the year off Somalia's coast. The US Navy warned vessels to stay clear of Somalia's coast. The UN World Food Program has appealed for international action to secure the waters off the coast.