KIGALI/RWANDA (Web Desk) – After 16 years, lions are poised to make a comeback in Rwanda. Seven lions – five females and two males, imported from South Africa – will be released in Akagera, the country’s only protected savannah region.
It was 1999 when the last four lions of Rwanda were killed by farmers, resettled near the jungle, reported BBC.
Motivated by a desire to survive in an impoverished country still reeling from the 1994 genocide, those farmers had unwittingly pushed the county’s lion population to extinction.
Things will be different this time. After resettling refugees outside the park, the Rwandan government appointed the non-profit organisation African Parks to restore Akagera to its former glory.
They fenced off the park to reduce human-wildlife conflict and funded outreach projects in neighbouring villages to engage local communities.
Jes Gruner, Akagera’s park manager said, “And in a way Rwanda’s story is Akagera’s story: it went to the pits, but now it’s thriving.”
