Profits from sales of the chocolates are meant to be reinvested in nearby communities

International news via Reuters:

Threatened by armed conflict, volcanic activity and rampant deforestation, Africa’s oldest national park is turning to a new product to raise its profile and boost conservation efforts: chocolate gorillas.

Virunga National Park in war-ravaged eastern Congo is marking its 100th anniversary this month by producing 25,000 handcrafted treats at a nearby chocolate factory to be sold in Europe, including Belgium, Congo’s former colonial power.

Spanning more than 3,000 square miles, Virunga is home to many of the world’s last mountain gorillas, yet much of the park is under rebel control and fighting has accelerated forest loss.

M23 rebels have seized eastern Congo’s two largest cities since January in an unprecedented advance that has risked igniting an all-out regional war.

Cocoa for the chocolate gorillas comes from farms created at the periphery of the park, part of a push to promote agricultural and industrial activities in the area so residents do not turn to logging and poaching. The chocolate factory is located five kilometres (3.1 miles) outside the park.

Profits from sales of the chocolates are meant to be reinvested in nearby communities. 

Clarisse Kyakimwa has been working her small cocoa farm for three years.

“This cocoa has several benefits. It helps me send my children to school, feed them, pay my hospital bills,” she said.

Buyers take her crop to the Virunga factory, but she has not seen the finished product: a glistening chocolate rendering of a full-grown gorilla with its arms on the shoulders of one of its young.

“They say this chocolate is taken abroad… I’ve never seen this chocolate, since we’re not used to eating it,” Kyakimwa said.

SYMBOL OF ‘RESILIENCE’

Instability has been a problem at Virunga since well before M23’s latest advance. 

“With the insecurity we’re seeing in the region, it’s sometimes difficult to access the raw material, which is cocoa,” said Roger Marora, master chocolatier and a native of North Kivu province.

The United Nations and Western governments say Rwanda has provided arms and troops to M23. Rwanda denies backing M23 and says its military has acted in self-defence against Congo’s army and a militia founded by perpetrators of the 1994 genocide.

Mediation efforts by various African leaders as well as Qatar have not yet yielded a ceasefire.

“The chocolate gorillas symbolise the park’s resilience in the face of multiple threats,” said Virunga National Park Director Emmanuel de Merode.

Reporting by Gradel Muyisa; Writing by Robbie Corey-BouletEditing by Gareth Jones

Rations in areas at risk of famine have been reduced to 70% of a standard WFP ration

International news via Reuters:

The World Food Programme warned on Friday it is facing a funding shortfall that could affect its ability to support people facing acute food shortages in Sudan within weeks as donor states reduce humanitarian funding.

The United Nations agency said it has a shortfall in funding of $698 million out of the nearly $800 million it had asked for from donors to help seven million people from May through to September.

There will be shortages of items, such as cereals, pulses and ready-to-use food from May as it is confronted with a broader trend of global donor states reducing humanitarian funding, the organisation warned.

Rations in areas at risk of famine have been reduced to 70% of a standard WFP ration (equal to 2100 kcal per day), the organisation said.

“We are stressing the need to ensure funding flows at a very critical time where we are entering the rainy season and also the hunger season in Sudan, and at a time when conflict is escalating and displacements are increasing,” Samantha Chattaraj, the WFP’s Sudan Country Office Emergency Coordinator told reporters in Geneva via video link from Port Sudan.

The war in Sudan erupted in April 2023, sparked by a power struggle between the army and the rival Rapid Support Forces. The conflict has since displaced millions.

The WFP said it is mobilizing support across the country, including to some of the 450,000 people displaced from Sudan’s Zamzam camp in North Darfur after it was taken over by the RSF earlier this month.

The organisation said it had assisted 4 million people across Sudan in March – the highest monthly figure since conflict began – and is now able to reach more areas, after overcoming bureaucratic challenges and insecurity.

More aid trucks are expected to arrive in the next few days, it said.

Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin, Editing by Miranda Murray and Sharon Singleton